Ghanaian transgender, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, who is a board member of the LGBTQ+ Right Ghana, has expressed that the passing of an anti-gay bill into law will only run the country backwards.
In his opinion, the bill in question will only incite hate against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Explaining why he believes the anti-gay bill is a hate bill, he told Sefa Danquah on the Happy Morning Show: “Ghanaians are very hospital, loving and caring. If you fall on the street, people will actually run to your rescue before they will be thinking about who you are, your colour, your sexuality, your tribe and your gender. So, a parliament passing an anti-gay bill now for the ordinary Ghanaians will only make people hate others from different families and their own families and that is just inappropriate. This is a misplaced priority for Ghana at the moment.”
Va-Bene noted that already the Ghanaian people are been sensitized to hate members of the LGBTQ+ community through media sensationalism. He added that many groups and religious sects are advancing arguments against the community when in actual fact they are ignorant of issues on sexuality.
Earlier this year, the Speaker of Parliament received a private member bill from some MPs that would expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.
Reports has it that the new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding and act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Meanwhile, fifteen renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament.
In the memorandum, they contend that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities, is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”
Some Christian leaders, on the other hand, have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, endorsing the bill.
