I'm against LGBTQ+ activities - Mahama

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) Ex-President, John Dramani Mahama has stated categorically that his faith as a Christian and a member of the Assemblies of God church is against LGBTQ.

According to Mr Mahama, nature created us as man and woman hence he does not support same sex marriage nor sexual relationship between same sex.

”As a member of the Assemblies of God church, my faith is against LGBTQ. The faith I have does not accept same sex marriage and gay and lesbianism. There is a Bill currently in Parliament which is yet to be passed. But the government has indicated that if the Bill is passed the President will not assent to it. What the Attorney-General is saying is that a bill passed through a private member’s motion should not incur a cost to the state or government and so due to that technicality the President will not sign the bill even if it passed. The Parliament and the Executive must look at how they can take away the charge on government so that the President will be happy to sign the bill.

”For me, nature created us as man and woman, so if you ask me, my personal faith is against LGBTQ,” Mr Mahama stated in a Breakfast meeting with the Clergy in Koforidua as part of his two-day tour of the Eastern Region.

In mid-June 2021, Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana Alban Bagbin stated that LGBT+ rights “should not be encouraged or accepted by our society” and that “urgent actions are being taken to pass a law to eventually nip the activities of [LGBT+] groups in the bud.” Later that month, eight MPs in the Parliament proposed the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.The eight MPs were Sam Nartey George, Della Sowah, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, Alhassan Suhuyini, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, Helen Ntoso, and Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, all of the National Democratic Congress, as well as John Ntim Fordjour of the New Patriotic Party. On 1 July, Alban Bagbin stated that he expected the law to be passed within six months, telling a prayer meeting of Ghanaian MPs that “the LGBT+ pandemic is worse than COVID-19.”

On 2 August 2021, the bill passed its first reading in the Ghanaian Parliament, being referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

On 13 October 2021, majority leader in the Parliament Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said that the Parliament would ensure “careful balance” in assessing the bill.

On 5 November 2021, deputy majority leader Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin announced that Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee would begin hearing petitions in a week, estimating that “we are looking at 15 weeks for the hearings to be done.”

On 12 November 2021, public hearings began on the bill in the Parliament of Ghana. On the first day of hearings, Henry Kwasi Prempeh of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development spoke against the bill, saying that “merely because you see yourself as part of a momentary majority, does not entitle you to impose your will on even one individual in the society.” Kyeremeh Atuahene of the Ghana AIDS Commission said that the bill risked criminalising anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in the country, and also pushing back against donor funding.

On 30 November 2021, Akwasi Osei of the Mental Health Authority Ghana spoke in support of the bill, saying that homosexuality was abnormal and that a majority of LGBT+ people in Ghana claimed to be queer because of peer pressure. That day, Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice of Ghana Joseph Whittal told the Parliament to “be careful on the bill.” saying that Commission was neither for nor against the bill but that the bill risked putting advocates for human rights in danger of criminal prosecution.

On 6 December 2021, Moses Foh-Amoaning of the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values spoke in support of the bill, saying LGBT+ people were “not well, and the law gives [health authorities] the power to restrain such people.”[19]

On 5 July 2023, the Parliament of Ghana unanimously voted to grant the Bill a second reading, and agreed to minor amendments proposed by the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.