Anti-Gay Bill report to be laid before Parliament this week – Sam George

Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Samuel Nartey George has said that information he has received from the Chair of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee is that the report on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, popularly known as the Anti-Gay Bill will be laid before the House this week.

Sam George who is one of the sponsors of the bill says the report recommends that the Bill should be passed.

Speaking on the Big Issue on TV3 Tuesday, March 28, he said “The Bill is at the committee stage and the report of the committee is ready. It is my understanding from the chair of the committee that this week it is going to be laid.

“I will just paraphrase the conclusion, it recommends and urges the House to pass the Bill.

“The Bill is still very rigid on what the intent was. When it comes to issues of LGBTQ practitioners, the punishments are still there…so literally, everything that was in the original bill is there.”

Meanwhile, speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has told the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee of Parliament not to be intimidated by anyone regarding the Anti-Gay Bill.

He asked the committee to report back to him if they are encountering any challenges.

“Please, committee members that we referred the Bill to, we want the report, don’t be intimidated by any person,” he said during a breakfast meeting with the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship on Tuesday, March 28.

He added “Please let the report flow, we need to legislate. Our friends just passed their law in Uganda, we may not go the way they have gone, our Constitution is very clear as to the direction we should move and so we should be guided by that because if we pass any law against the Constitution, it is unconstitutional.”

His comments come at a time President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo dissociated from the Anti-Gay Bill.

Proposed under a Private Members’ Bill, the anti-gay bill is expected to criminalise some of the activities of homosexuals in Ghana.

Answering a question put to him at the Jubilee House on Monday, March 27 when US Vice President Kamala Harris called on him, President Akufo-Addo confirmed that the bill is currently before Parliament, which will decide on it, but most of its provisions are being fine-tuned.

“It hasn’t been passed, so the statement that there is a legislation in Ghana to that effect is not accurate,” he said.

“Parliament is dealing with it and at the end of the process, I will come in,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo welcomed US Vice President Harris to the seat of government as part the latter’s three-day visit to the country.

“For the American press who are here, you know that a great deal of work in my career has been to address human rights issues, equality issues across the globe including as well as the LGBTQ community and I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting freedom and supporting and fighting for quality among all people.”