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.”