Mr Kwame Ayimadu-Antwi, the Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, has warned against the politicisation of the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2022.”
“It is important to note that all Members of Parliament agreed that we must prosecute this Bill and therefore, I must warn that any attempt that anybody will want to cloth this Bill with political colours will suffer non-passage of the Bill,” the Chairman state at a press conference on Thursday, December 7, at Parliament House in Accra.
The press conference was in his response to an earlier one held on Wednesday, December 6, by Mr Samuel Nartey George, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Prampram and Lead Sponsor of the LGBTQ Bill.
The object of the Bill is to provide for proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian Family Values proscribe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) and related activities.
Mr George at the said press conference expressed the frustrations of the Sponsors in getting the House to take the Bill through the consideration stage.
Mr Ayimadu-Antwi reiterated that the Minority press conference was in bad faith.
He noted that all Members of Parliament were happy to get the Bill passed, saying “therefore, let no man take some political advantage of the situation.”
He said some members of the public and some Reverend Ministers were of the view that the Bill was a bad one, which the House must not pass, but others think otherwise.
The Chairman said the House must pass a Bill that would become an Act that would stand the test of time and the House had to iron out all the differences.
He said it was the Leadership of the House that decided on the agenda of the House on daily basis and therefore, he as the Chairman of the Committee could not decide for the House.
Mr Ayimadu-Antwi said it was better for the House to unite in taking the Bill through the legislative processes in order for them to have a good Bill.
He cited that Hungary had passed a similar Bill to ensure that their children were protected.
The Chairman said the Anti-LGBTQ, which was a private member’s Bill was not brought into the House under a certificate of urgency and that there were other Bills, which were placed before the House before anti-gay Bill, but nobody was saying that such Bills were keeping long in the House.
He said the Committee was ready to prosecute the anti-gay Bill in the House anytime the Speaker and the Leadership were ready.
Mr Ayimadu-Antwi noted that the Anti-LGBTQ Bill was the only Bill which the House had spent the highest amount of money on – through the Committee’s nine public hearing stage, meeting of special interest groups and Committee Members traveling to other countries on study trips on the Bill.
This, he said, showed the importance the House attached to the Bill.
