Ghana Parliament Speaker Alban Bagbin
has described LGBT rights as a pandemic “worse than COVID-19.”
According to 76Crimes, Bagbin
made his comments in introducing a member's bill, titled “Promotion
of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021,”
which targets the LGBT community.
“I can tell you that it is more than
COVID-19, and I am happy that our beloved country, Ghana, is together
in this,” Bagbin
is quoted as saying. “The President has spoken, our traditional
leaders have spoken, our religious leaders have spoken together, and
Ghanaians have spoken with one voice, and we don’t want to do
anything that has to do with LGBTQ activities. I will always do what
is right because good will always triumph over evil.”
Details about the bill were not
announced but it reportedly would promote programs that attempt to
alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBT people and
prohibit the promotion of LGBT rights.
Rightify Ghana, an LGBT rights group,
said that a lawmaker told them that the bill seeks to “criminalize
the promotion, advocacy, funding, and act of homosexuality.”
Rightify Ghana also called for Bagbin
to apologize to the LGBT community.
“Unlike COVID-19, [being] LGBT+
doesn't harm or kill anyone and it doesn't bring a country's economy
to its knees as Ghana's economy struggles because of the pandemic,”
the
group told UK LGBT blog PinkNews.
“His comments were unfair, insensitive, and he should apologize to
the LGBT+ community.”