Sam George, Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, has given authorities a 24-hour deadline to remove a billboard on the Accra-Tema Motorway that allegedly promotes LGBTQI activities.
“We are calling on the Inspector General of Police to carry out the necessary security operations immediately, within the next 24 hours, to ensure that this billborad, which is an affront to the Constitution, is removed in collaboration with the MCE for the area.”
According to one of the sponsors of the Anti-LGBTQI Bill currently before the House, it is illegal to promote the practice through outdoor advertising.
“Over the weekend, our attention was drawn to an illegality that flies in the face of the Constitution of Ghana – Articles 11 and 26 which talk about Ghana’s cultural sovereignty. We noticed that a billboard promoting the activities of the LGBTQ community has been mounted along the motorway.
“As sponsors of the bill before Parliament and as members of Parliament who represent the aspirations and will of Ghanaians, we have deemed it important to show up here today to register in the strongest way our displeasure, discomfort and abhorrence for this unholy, unculturable and untraditional advertisement that has been put up on this road.”
The Bill on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights prescribes that people of the same sex who engage in sexual activity could spend up to 10 years in jail.
Varying forms of support for the LGBTQ+ community will also be criminalised if the Bill, known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, is passed into law.
The members of Parliament that presented the bill are, Sam George, Emmanuel Bedzrah (MP, Ho West) Della Adjoa Sowah (MP, Kpando), John Ntim Fordjour (MP, Assin South), Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini (MP, Tamale North), Helen Adjoa Ntoso (MP, Krachi West), Rita Naa Odoley Sowah (MP, La Dadekotopon) and Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor (MP, South Dayi).
The bill is currently at the committee level in Parliament, where public hearings are being held by legislators.
While data indicates that most Ghanaians are in favour of the Bill, it has faced criticism from renowned artists and academics.
