Leader and founder of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Percival Kofi Akpaloo says Ghana’s approach to dealing with the LGBTQ+ will rather cause more people to join the community.
According to him, the country’s leaders have not thought about the consequences of the bill when passed and argues, “We sometimes rush to do things here in Ghana and don’t really think about the downsides.”
An anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament, The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, seeks to criminalise LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities. The Bill prescribes that people of the same sex who engage in sexual activity could spend up to 10 years in jail.
Reacting to this, the politician asked, “Are we building a prison where we will put lesbians and homosexuals in the same prison or will be putting them in our regular prisons? Either ways the act will still go on. We have to think deeply about this before arriving at a decision. We don’t need to address the issue with emotions but with common sense. We will not achieve anything with the prison term. We have to think about it all again.
The truth is the bill is going to encourage more people to get involved in homosexuality and lesbianism. This act is already being practiced in the prisons and more people will be turned into gays in there. So what good will the prison term do them?”
In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, he suggested that homosexuals and lesbians should be educated rather than prosecuted. He believes right structures put in place can also reduce the incidence of the act.
“We need to allow married persons in jail conjugal visits. “We need to think about all these things and not about jailing people.”
He attributed poverty as a cause of homosexuality. “Poverty also causes homosexuality and we also need to put in plans to reduce it in Ghana. Numerous people practice homosexuality in order to survive and if we address poverty, we might minimize it.”
On his accord, educating children and parents also becoming responsible for their children can reduce the incidence of homosexuality. “Parents need to monitor their children and prevent them from being influenced by older folks. If these problems are identified, a solution to homosexuality will be found rather than the focus being on this firefighting approach. We need to find an educative way to address the people and prevent this from happening,” he reiterated.
