The anti-LGBTQ+ bill presented by 8 Ghanaian legislators dubbed, “the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021” sparked a debate in the field of academia and among professionals as some openly opposed the bill.
After the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 was submitted to parliament for approval, the Human Rights Coalition and a Coalition of Lawyers, Academics and other Professionals submitted a counter document, describing the bill as against the constitutionally protected freedom and human rights of the Ghanaian LGBTQ+ community.
Editor of the Ghanaian Publisher Newspaper, Yaw Obeng Manu who is in support of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill says the coalition of academics and professionals are misplacing their priorities and he confidently believes they will not receive any public support for their position.
“The coalition of intellectuals against the bill must know that we are Ghanaians and we have our traditions and values. That alone will see them getting zero support from the Ghanaian public. Even if some of their colleagues support them, they will not even come out to support them openly.” He stated.
He noted that it will be difficult for Africa to be influenced or openly accept the LGBTQ+ community because “we have a culture and tradition and are a religious people who believe in the Bible, Quran and African Traditional Religion and they are all against homosexuality. Our norms and traditions are against homosexuality. In the Bible, the Apostles spoke against homosexuality and saw it as an abomination. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of homosexuality and that shows that no Ghanaian will support them.”
Depicting these examples and stating that it shows how God hates homosexuality, he posited that with this in mind, Ghanaians with religion at their core will never oppose the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
“Europe and America were against LGBTQ+ until they developed and are now indifferent. But the thing Americans will see as okay, Ghanaians will not. Africans regard homosexuality as an abomination,” he told Sefa-Danquah on the Happy Morning Show.
On Monday, August 2, the eight legislators spearheading the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 officially laid the bill before Parliament for approval.
The bill is currently with the Parliamentary Committee that has since called on citizens to submit documents stating their positions on the bill.
But to protect the rights of LGBTQ persons in the country, two separate documents were sent to Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on October 2, making a case against the proposed Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.
The two groups supporting the memorandum are the Human Rights Coalition and a Coalition of Lawyers, Academics and other Professionals.
The coalition says the Bill is in direct conflict with a number of constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms and human rights as well as a number of international human rights instruments to which Ghana is a State Party.