LGBTQ+ Bill: 'We don't want a watered-down version' – Afenyo-Markin tells President Mahama

The Minority in Parliament has urged President John Dramani Mahama to ensure the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2025, also known as the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, is passed and assented to without changes that could alter its original provisions.

The Minority argues that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should maintain the position it held while in opposition when it backed the legislation and called on former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to assent to the version passed by Parliament in 2024.

Ghana's Parliament passes anti-LGBTQ bill again

Speaking at a Leaders’ Media Briefing on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, ahead of Parliament’s resumption, the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, said the party wants consistency from the government on the controversial legislation.

He insisted that the government should not introduce late amendments or allow further delays that could change the substance of the Bill.

The Member of Parliament for Effutu also called for lawmakers to vote on the actual text rather than an altered version.

“The outstanding legislation and the Family Values Bill, then in opposition, the NDC said that the bill, as it was then, must be signed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“We, the Minority, will want to secure two things: that citizens’ rights are protected and that the original bill, that the NDC promised and passed in opposition, should be the same bill that must be signed by President John Dramani Mahama,” he noted.

Afenyo-Markin further cautioned against amendments that could weaken the legislation, arguing that any safeguards must be clearly defined and consistent with the 1992 Constitution.

“We don’t want any late amendments carved out or delayed to water it down. Every member must vote on the actual text. Rights must be protected by precise drafting, consistent with the 1992 Constitution. Blanket exemptions are not safeguards, they are a dilution,” he added.

It was introduced in Parliament in 2021 by eight private members of Parliament led by the Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament, Samuel Nartey George.

Parliament passed it on February 28, 2024, but former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not assent to it before leaving office in January 2025.

It was reintroduced on May 29, 2026, and the Ninth Parliament passed it with some amendments.

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