A private members bill has been presented to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin for onward presentation to Parliament to be passed into law to criminalize activities of LGBTQ activities in the country.
Mr. Samuel Nartey George, Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, and a member of the Coalition of MPs against LGBTQ+ which consists of some eight members of parliament presenting the Bill to the Speaker at a Speaker’s Prayer Breakfast Meeting on Tuesday, June 29,2021 is confident the bill against the activities of LGBTQ+ when passed into law will become a reference point for countries, and Parliaments across the world.
According to him, the bill is drafted to promote love, and not hate, but seeks to “criminalize not just the activities, but the promotion, advocacy, funding of LGBTQ+ activities and all of its forms.”
“It will therefore become criminal upon the successful passage of this bill into law for anybody to produce any promotional materials, or for any TV station to show content that supports it, anybody who wants to provide funding for LGBTQ activities, and those engaged in it”
This bill, he noted, also seeks to segment those who are engaged in it. “We’ve established clearly, homosexuality is not a human right, it is a lifestyle choice, and so we respect the human rights of homosexuality practitioners to get a free and fair trial, however, their sexual orientation and choices cannot be deemed to be a human right and this is in consonance with the 1992 Constitution”
According to Sam George, the bill actually protects practitioners from extra judicial treatments; “we believe that they must be put before a competent court to trial their case”, adding that it also provides for practitioners to have medical, psychological support for those who wants it.
“The bill is not looking to jail everybody, but it is actually a reformative tool in the hands of our courts to help people who wants to break from a lifestyle they have found themselves in”, he assured.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Bagbin, receiving the Bill commended the members of the Coalition of MPs against LGBTQ+ for their bold step to protect the sanctity of the Ghanaian society from what he described as a pandemic worse that coronavirus, in the midst of threats from various groups.
He assured all religious leaders who were heavily represented at the meeting that they would work assiduously to ensure parliament pass this Bill into law in this session or by close of this year.
He assured that the Bill is drawn in accordance with all provisions in the constitution, our laws, and international conventions, “it is a law that even those who are against it would find it difficult not to accept it.”
Ghanamps.com