Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill is hate-spreading, horrifying, absurd; targets all Ghanaians – LGBTQI+ Ghana Director

The LGBTQI+ community in Ghana has described a bill seeking to criminalise their sexuality and advocacy as “horrifying and absurd”.

According to the group, the document is a “hate bill” that does not only target the LGBTQI+ community but every Ghanaian.

They have likened it to a document authored by American extremists groups like the KKK, who are white supremacists, and suspect they are behind the Ghanaian bill in their bid to spread hate in the West African country.

The 36-page Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which is yet to be considered by parliament, seeks to unequivocally criminalise LGBTQI+ activities.

Among other things, it says people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”

It covers any person who “holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”

The bill is being sponsored by anti-LGBTQI+ legislators on either side of the aisle.

They submitted a copy of the draft to the Speaker of parliament on 29 June 2021.

The bill is not only targeting persons of LGBTQI+ orientation but also promoters of it.

Reacting to the bill on Talk of the Nation on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, 27 July 2021, Director of the LGBTQI+ Ghana, Mr Alex Kofi Donkor, said the bill is a threat to every Ghanaian.

He told show host Ewura Adams Karim: “I’ve gone through this bill and I’m saying this bill is horrifying and incredibly absurd. It is horrifying and incredibly absurd in the sense that they named the bill ‘Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values’ but honestly, this bill is not any Ghanaian bill. And I’m saying this because these are some of the documents by the American extremist group like the KKK and the World Congress of Families”.

“These are families that object to black people, they object to Islamic people, they believe in white supremacy and this idea, when you look at the American history, has been fought and it’s been rejected.”

Mr Donkor said “it is a hate bill”, stressing: “This is American far-right or extremist bill”.

“They realised that the idea of extremists is being rejected in places like the UK and, so, they’re looking for new breeding grounds to export this hate”.

“Also, they’ve realised countries like Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana are countries you can describe as very conservative and, so, they believe that if they bring bills like this in these countries, they will be able to sail through”, he noted.

He said: “When we mention issues of LGBT, it is sensationlised in this country and, so, once they say the bill is against LGBT, we will get a lot of Ghanaians to support it”.

“When you read the bill into detail, it is not about attacking LGBT alone, it is targeting how people dress, this bill is criminalising sex toys, it is even criminalising oral sex (blowjob), so, people who think this bill is targeting LGBTQI+ persons alone, then they are joking, it is targeting every Ghanaian.”

---classfm