Former Tamale Central MP, Inusah Fuseini, has expressed concern about the passage of the Promotion of the Proper Sexual Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021.
According to him, the passage of the bill into law will rather create more problems.
Speaking in an interview on Citi TV, Mr Fusineini explained that the passage will force Ghanaians to pry into others’ private lives.
“If you come out openly to profess you are LGBTQ+, we will not mind you, but if you engage in it to the knowledge of the law enforcement agencies or responsible citizens, we will arrest you and send you to jail and there is already a law dealing with that, and the bill will introduce more problems for us because they say if you are in your house, you have the responsibility to ensure members of the household uphold proper family values,” he said.
He added that the description of unnatural carnal knowledge in the bill is disturbing and that there is already a law criminalising interfering in people’s private affairs.
“As Africans, we have traditions and that is why LGBTQ+ is facing stiff opposition, and we see it as a cultural re-colonisation, a cultural imposition, and it is not African, and I have said that unnatural carnal knowledge is an inherently private matter. It is a private matter, and we are not concerned about what goes on in the four walls of your bedroom, and that is why I said the bill is trying to create a police state.
“Why should we use state resources preying on people’s private affairs when it is already an offence to do so?” he asked.
Prior to the first reading of the bill, it suffered two legal challenges over concerns that it is in breach of the constitution.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin was also cited for contempt for allowing the House to proceed with the anti-LGBTQ+ bill despite pending legal actions.
However, in court on Wednesday, the Supreme Court dismissed the request to halt Parliament’s consideration of the bill.
The nine-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo, says it has not been convinced to issue such an order at this stage since the matters raised will be dealt with in the substantive case.