Mahama Suggests Government Sponsorship for Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill
Accra, Ghana - 14 Jan, 2025 - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama has proposed a new approach to the contentious Anti-LGBTQ+ bill, suggesting it be introduced as a government-sponsored bill to lend it greater legitimacy and enhance its chances of passage.
President Mahama's proposal, made during a meeting with the Catholic Bishops Conference in Accra, aims to foster broader institutional backing and a unified stance on the issue.
This development may alter the dynamics of the debate surrounding the bill, which has sparked intense discussion and division within Ghana and internationally.
The president also emphasized the importance of teaching Ghanaian values in schools, suggesting that this approach could mitigate the need for legislation on family values.
He expressed his desire for a consensus on these issues, looking forward to a review conference to discuss the matter further.
“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do, but I do think that we should have a conversation on it again so that all of us, if we decide to move that bill forward, move it forward with a consensus and probably it shouldn’t be a private member’s bill,'' he stated.
“It probably should be a government bill with governments behind it after consultation with all the stakeholders to see how we’re able to move this forward.''
“It leads us back to the discussion we had that if we’re teaching our values in school, we won’t need to pass a bill to enforce our family values and that’s why I think more than even the family values bill, it’s us agreeing on a curriculum that inculcates these values into our children as they are growing up, so that we don’t need to legislate it and so we’ll see how all this goes. So I’m looking forward to this review conference to come to some consensus on some of these issues,'' he added.
It's worth noting that President Mahama has previously expressed his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, stating that gay marriage and being transgender are against his Christian beliefs.
The development of the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill and President Mahama's proposed approach will likely be closely watched in the coming weeks.
Source: Florence Kyei /Lead News Online
