Let’s enact laws to deal with issues of LGBTQI+ - Joyce Bawah Mogtari

Joyce Bawah Mogtari, an aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, has called for some legislation that will deal permanently with issues relating to the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex issues (LGBTQI+) in the country.

According to her, the LGBTQI+ issue has been sidelined for too long and this is the time for Ghana to clearly indicate its stance.

“I think it is time for us to stop paying lip-service to that matter. It is time for the executive, legislature, and key stakeholders to come together and find a way to put this matter to sleep.

“I think the only way is to find a way either through public policy, through legislation, through enactment whatever [to deal with the LGBTQI+ issue],” Bawah Mogtari said on Newsfile, Saturday, 27 February 2021.

She further added that the Criminal Offence Act, 1960 (Act 29) section which frowns on unnatural carnal knowledge is not “cast in iron”.

“Our constitution grants us all sorts of freedoms on the basis of religion, creed, gender, and what have you so that definitely has a certain wide connotation,” Joyce Bawah Mogtari stated.

“So, we cannot necessarily go into the minds of the framers of that particular portion of the legislation and find out why they arrived at this conclusion. So, I think certainly, it is time for us to end the debate and put it to rest.”

The recent opening and subsequent closure of an LGBTQI+ office in Ashongman in Accra is still trending due to the legal issues versus cultural issues at play.

While some say that the very presence of LGBTQI+ people, collectively termed homosexuals, is abhorrent to the culture and values of the Ghanaian people, others have insisted that the rights of LGBTQI+ must be protected like anyone else.