The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill would be passed before the 2024 elections, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has assured.
“We will pass it before the next election. We will pass it. That Bill will go through. Yes,” the Speaker assured when responding to questions in a meeting with the Parliament Press Corps in Accra on Friday.
The legislature, Mr Bagbin said, was supporting the committee on constitutional, legal and parliamentary affairs to do a comprehensive stakeholder consultations to ensure that the bill saw the light of day.
“We are supporting the Committee to do a global tour and learn from other jurisdictions and get a better understanding of the situation and share with stakeholders.”
Ghana, the Speaker said, was unique and must protect its old cultural values that had endeared it to the rest of the world.
“There is a reason we are called Ghanaians and not by any other name. We are unique, we have different characteristics, and we have customs and traditions (to protect).”
The bill, which seeks to prohibit same-sex relationship, is currently before the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the House.
It has, thus, received over 150 memoranda from the public, both local and international.
Being championed by eight members, led by Ningo-PrampramMP, Samuel Nartey George, the bill has been met with opposition from human right activists who argued that should Ghana pass same, it could dent the country’s image as a state where rights were guaranteed.
But Mr Bagbin said Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex (LGBTQI) rights must not be entertained in Ghana.
“When we talk about human rights, we are talking about things that add value to the human being by way of creating opportunities, an equal playing ground or giving some privileges and rights to each and every one of us by removing all restrictions and hurdles to make life freer. That is what we call human rights. Anything negating that cannot be a right,” the Speaker explained.
God, the Speaker said, in his infinite wisdom had rules for man; same way the society must set rules that determines how its members lived.
“Even the almighty God in heaven has rules and that is why that boy called Lucifer, when he went against the rules, He dealt with him by casting him down to earth and we gave him the name Satan. His agents are the demons, the principalities and the devils (who are foisting this thing on us).”
The Speaker said on his travels, “Many things have been said about the bill, but we Ghanaians are going to determine what we know as human rights”.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
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