Nii Amasah Namoale, a former Member of Parliament for Dadekotopon, has urged members of the eighth Parliament to be resolute in passing the anti-LGBTQI+ bill despite its impending ramifications.
“Our legislators have a moral responsibility to protect the cultural values of Ghanaians and also help us realise our road map legally well, I do not care about what people do in their rooms but do not come and pollute our children.
“People should not come and solicit it and tell children they can do this or that, but at the same time, they should not be maltreated because they are practising LGBTQI+,” Nii Namoale stated.
He lamented that the controversial bill had resulted in some legislators receiving threats of being denied entry into some foreign countries and already, a visa denial of Alhassan Suhuyini,the Member of Parliament (MP) forTamale North in the Northern Region,to the Netherlands had been attributed to his involvement in the tabling of the bill.
Nii Namoale insisted that he supported people being jailed for practising LGBTQI+ because they were involved in an activity against the 1992 Constitution and Parliament is currently receiving memoranda on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill ahead of the House’s resumption later in October.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame in the Ashanti Region, also assured that Parliament would not be pressured by international relations to go against the nation’s interests and cited Article 40 (a) of the 1992 Constitution as “the driving principle that should underpin our international relations”.
“In its dealings with other nations, the government shall promote and protect the interests of Ghana,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu quoted from the Constitution.
While data indicatedmost Ghanaians were in favour of the bill, it has faced criticism from renowned artists and academics which prescribes people of same sex who engage in sexual activity can spend up to 10 years in jail.
Varying forms of support for LGBTQI+ community will also be criminalised if the bill, known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 is passed into law however, it generated some widespread conversation, with many expressing varied views about some clauses in the document.
But following the heated conversations amidst pressure on Parliament to pass the bill, there have been speculations that MPs who support the bill may be denied some privileges from members of the international community.
Many persons and institutions have filed memoranda in support of the bill and to help fine-tune it with a number of renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals also filed documents challenging the legislation.–citinewsroom.com
