Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu Speaks on the Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader in Parliament, has emphasized the need of maintaining a “careful balance” in evaluating the anti-LGBTQ Bill.

In remarks that avoided taking a position on the Bill, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said, “we are a democratic country, and Parliament should ensure that citizens’ rights are protected.”
While he said that democracy is about majority rule, he also stated that “it does not mean that we should trample on the rights of others.”

“The appropriate thing will be done,” Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu remarked further on Parliament’s consideration of the Bill.

The Majority Leader also said that international relations will not put pressure on Parliament to act against Ghana’s interests.

He referred to Ghana’s constitution’s Article 40 (a) as “the driving principle that should underpin our international relations.”

According to the constitution, “the government shall promote and protect the interests of Ghana in its dealings with other nations,” Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.

Memoranda on the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill are presently being received by Parliament ahead of its resumption later this month.

Ghana’s two major religious groups, Christians and Muslims, have been outspoken in their support for the Bill and have submitted memos in favor of the bill, that critics have labeled homophobic.

A letter signed by fifteen prominent legal, academic, and civil society experts characterizing the Bill as inimical to Ghana’s democratic values was also filed.

The Bill stipulates that individuals of the same sex who engage in sexual conduct face up to ten years in prison.

If the bill, titled as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, becomes law, many forms of support for the LGBTQ+ community would be criminalized.

Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s collegue Majority Leader, said the anti-LGBTQ Bill needs to be changed from its current form.

The Majority Chief Whip, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh, characterized the Bill as “defective” and said that “we need to fine-tune it to ensure that it maximizes the protection of rights and freedoms in consonance with democratic principles that we have practiced uninterruptedly for over three decades.”

Because of his position on Parliament’s Majority side, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh is expected to play an important role in deciding Bill’s future.