Draft anti-LGBT Bill to be laid before Parliament [PDF]

A bill that criminalizes homosexuality and related LGBTTQQIAAP+ activities is set to be laid before Parliament.

The Private Member’s Bill is sponsored by Hon. Samuel Nartey George (MP of Ningo-Prampram), Hon. Della Adjoa Sowah (MP for Kpando), Hon. Emmanuel Bedzrah (MP for Ho West), Hon. John Ntim Forjour (MP for Assin South), Hon. Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (MP for Tamale North), Hon. Rita Naa Odoley Sowah (MP for La Dadekotopon), Hon. Helen Adjoa Ntoso (MP for Krachi West) and Hon. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor (MP for South Dayi).

The bill, properly titled the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021” intends to “provide for proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values; proscribe LGBTQ+ and related activities; proscribe propaganda of, advocacy for or promotion of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities; provide for the provide for the protection of and support for children, persons who are victims or accused of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities and other persons; and related matters.”

When passed, the bill will make persons who commit activities deemed to “undermine the proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values provided for in the Bill” as “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than two thousand penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not less than two months and not more than four months.”

Clause 6 of the bill describes as committing an offence, anyone who “engages in sexual intercourse between or among persons of the same sex or between a man and an animal or a woman and an animal.” It also prohibits a person from “marrying or purporting to marry a person who is of the same sex as that person or holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”

Clause 6 also bars any individual from providing services or procedures such as surgery, that creates another sexual category other than the stipulated binary categorization of male and female.

Again, the bill assigns sexual and gender identity at birth. Meanwhile, a person who detains another person “with intent to cause that person to engage in sexual activity prohibited under the Bill” is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than five years. Home owners, occupiers of premises and related persons who knowingly permits individuals engaged in these prohibited sexual conducts could be sentenced for up to six years.

Furthermore, public show of amorous relations between or among persons of the same sex, or where one or more of the persons involved have undergone gender or sex reassignment and intentional cross-dressing to portray a gender different from a gender assigned at birth to the person, with intent to engage in an act prohibited under the Bill is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to a year.

From Clauses 12 to 16, the Bill prohibits any advocacy, support or promotion of homosexuality and LGBTTQQIAAP+ agenda. Offenders could be jailed to up to ten years under this Bill.