Who should procreate for you to adopt? – Sam George asks gays

The MP for Ningo -Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has asked the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual community to rethink their sexuality choice.

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, 12 October 2021, the MP questioned community members who wish to raise children about how they intend to do so when their lifestyle does not support childbearing.

“If your way of life does not support procreation, who should procreate for you to come and adopt,” he quizzed.

An anti-gay bill currently in parliament has generated heated discussions on LGBTQ+.

The bill is spearheaded by eight legislators: MP for Ningo-Prampram Sam George, Ho West MP Emmanuel Bedzrah, MP for Kpando Della Adjoa Sowah, and MP for Assin South John Ntim Fordjour.

According to Sam George, the bill is banning the opportunity for any LGBTQ+ couple to adopt a baby.

Crusaders behind the bill base their arguments on the belief that LGBTQI+ activities are alien to the country’s cultural norms and values and are also frowned upon by all major religious groups in Ghana.

The Christian Council of Ghana – an umbrella body of Christian churches in Ghana – has declared its support to the bill. “The council wishes to state unequivocally that it supports the bill and prays that it will see the light today… Let us protect the good family system that we have inherited from our forebears,” it said in an official statement.

The Office of the National Chief Imam also supports the bill stating, “homosexuality is a deviant behaviour totally unacceptable in Islam. Although our religion allows us the latitude to ponder and reconsider some issues, homosexuality is certainly not one of them”.

The bill seeks to criminalize LGBTQI+ advocacy and its practice for at least five years.

However, an 18-member group campaigning against the bill’s passage argues that “the bill violates all the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution”, adding that when passed into law, it would send Ghana to the dark ages of lawlessness.

“The bill violates virtually all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the constitution, namely the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble, freedom of association and the right to organize, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity,” leader of the group, Lawyer Akoto Ampaw said at a press conference on Monday (October 4).

Other members of the 18 member group are Professor Emerita Takyiwaaa Manuh, Communication Specialist, Professor Kwame Karikari, Professor Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo of the Department of Communication Studies, and Dean of the School of Information and Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Dr Rose Mensah-Kutin, Dr Yao Graham, Professor Dzodzi Tsikata and Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh of Centre of Democratic Development (CDD).