The anti-gay bill was allegedly passed for political reasons, according to Audrey Gadzekpo, board chair of the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, Parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which is also known as the anti-LGBTQ bill.
The bill outlaws LGBT advocacy, funding, and promotion and makes them illegal. The act’s sponsors and promoters could face sentences ranging from three to five years in prison, while those found guilty of the act could face a sentence of six months to three years in prison.
In an Eyewitness News interview on Citi FM on Wednesday, Prof. Gadzekpo stated to Umaru Sanda Amadu that the bill’s passage was motivated by politics.
She claimed that in 2015, when former President John Dramani Mahama was rumored to have a gay friend who was sponsoring him, lead bill sponsor Sam George stood up for the rights of homosexuals.
So she asked what had made him change his mind. “I’m here to tell you that they passed it for political reasons, not for any other reason. In 2015, Mr. Sam George, the chief bill proponent, faced accusations that his candidate, John Mahama, was being sponsored by a homosexual friend, among other things. Sam George has stated on record that those rights are safeguarded by the Constitution.
Thus, I have to ask why he decided to change his mind. What is different now? When he proposed the bill in 2021, his morality was different ten years ago from what it is today. “I am stating that politics exists for this reason. Vulnerable people’s bodies are being tramped on by them,” she said.
