Editorial by Ghanaian Times: Save president pressure to state view on LGBT

The acceptance or rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) has become a global conversation.

The West, for instance, ap­pear to have accepted it, using the concept of human rights as the basis for their stance.

Their leaders thus want the rest of the world to embrace the phenomenon.

However, that path has become a difficult or tortuous one for the rest of the globe, especially African countries, as they see the practice as a taboo and any attempt to force them to accept it as an imposition.

They see such an imposition as a violation of their cultural values and think as sovereign nations, they must be allowed some space to uphold their sov­ereignty and independence.

We do not want to ignore the fact that even in countries where LGBT practices are criminalised, there are personal­ities within the ruling class who may have contrary views but are responding to the wishes of their peoples.

And these wishes are en­dorsed by their legislatures as law and at this stage, the views of the leaders do not matter but the law.

This is why we believe personalities like the Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, Most Reverend Joseph Os­ei-Bonsu, must cease forthwith their calls on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to be emphatic about his stance on LGBTQ.

The President carries the spir­it of the nation and as a leader, he can make an emphatic stance on the matter and that can carry some weight of influence.

However, he is being evasive because that forthright view of his could jeopardise his dealings somewhere.

Who knows deep down his heart, President Akufo-Addo is against the taboo practices.

What we, as a nation, can do now is to direct such calls to the country’s legislators, the people’s representatives, to fast-track the passage of the law criminalising the practices as the President himself has said he is rather waiting for the decision of par­liament on the matter.

It is now information in the public domain that the Consti­tutional, Legal and Parliamen­tary Affairs Committee of Par­liament has recommended the passage of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.

The Committee says hav­ing undertaken the hearing of memoranda on the bill, it has clearly found that majority of Ghanaians are in favour of the passage of the Bill.

In that case, any such en­actment by Parliament would represent the voice of the people, which dovetails into the democratic narrative.

We of the Ghanaian Times are happy that the Committee is not rushing the process as it says there are significant human right concerns with the bill which are worthy of consideration pursu­ant to Article 12(1) of the Con­stitution, which imposes on all organs of the State, the duty to respect and uphold the funda­mental human rights enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

In spite of this problem, the mass of Ghanaians expect that “their will will be done finally”, which will is the passage of the anti-LGBT law.

We hope the people would abide by the law, when passed, and deal with people found in LGBT acts within the law.