Remove us from anti-gay bill – Intersex group to Parliament

The intersex community in Ghana has prayed to parliament to strike them out of the controversial anti-gay bill currently before the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.

According to the community, their conditions are biological rather than sexual and thus cannot be criminalised.

Addressing the 3rd Public hearing of the committee on the bill, Director of Key Watch Ghana, Shone Adjei cited a GhOne TV and Starr News report of two teenagers who were presumed to be girls at birth and brought up as such only to grow and realized they are rather males in the Eastern region to ground his claim.

“Permit me to start by putting the focus on a Ghanaian Intersex story which was aired by GHOne TV on 19th of October 2021. This is about the twins Akweley and Akuorkor; they were from the Eastern region, Yilo Krobo to be precise. These twins were born with Intersex conditions that made them have genitalia that is ambiguous. So means in late times they have both the male and female genitals. These twins are over 18 years now. On their birth, the doctors at their locality then advised that the organ that is more predominant is the female sex organ, so these twins should be made female. So they were dressed as such, their ears pierced, and sent to school as female. As they started going through the primary stage of school they started manifesting more of male than female. And they were not even comfortable to wear female clothes, because one look at them will show you this is a male not female. And because of that they had issues with the school system and they could no more stay in the system and they dropped out of school at the primary level. These persons have developed to teenage life at teenage level a fully grown male but female certification, names, and everything. This is one scenario, Mr Chairman to take note of,” he argued.

Shone Adjei demanded clauses in the bill inimical to the rights of the intersex community must be struck out of the bill.

“We recommend that this clause in bill 1, 2, and 23 needs to be struck out because they clearly violate many fundamental human rights.”

---Kasapafmonline.com