A former Member of Parliament for Zebilla constituency, John Ndebugre, has described the anti-LGBTQI+ bill before Parliament for consideration as unnecessary and a waste of time.
To him, the bill is misleading and based on speculations, adding he cannot fathom arguments that homosexuality is not a fundamental human right.
“That Bill is absolutely unnecessary. They are wasting everybody’s time. The Bill is saying don’t ever associate if you are persons of the same gender and I cannot support such a situation,” he fumed in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM.
He emphasised the constitution guarantees freedom of association and that cannot be curtailed by any means.
“It is in the constitution that you can make a choice to associate with anybody you want. Why are you saying we cannot associate?
“The Bill speculates that if I associate with another man, the purpose is for us to have sex. We don’t make laws based on speculation,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee on Thursday, commenced a public hearing on various memoranda received on the bill.
With about 160 of those memos for and against the passage of the bill from religious bodies and other groups, the committee offered an opportunity for representatives to appear before it.
But reacting to the hearing, Mr Ndebugre, who is also a private legal practitioner, described it as a waste of time, stating “look at the time they have wasted today. It is on our charge, and it is on the charge of the Consolidated Fund.”
Eight Members of Parliament jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalisation of LGBTQI+ activities in the country.
The bill, which they term as a Bill on the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values, was presented to Speaker Alban Bagbin on June 29, 2021.
The proponents want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalised in the country.
