Oppose the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill. Send a Memo to Parliament

Written By Kuukuwa Manful

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs of the Parliament of Ghana has requested for written memoranda in respect of the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021”. All memoranda must reach the committee by Thursday, 30th September, 2021 through the following channels:

BY POST:

The Clerk to the Committee

Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs

Office of Parliament

Osu-Accra

BY EMAIL:

Daowusu-agyekum@parliament.gh

 

At the end of this article is a simple template with guides for writing a memo to parliament to register your opposition to the bill. Scroll right to the end for this if that’s what you’re here for.

If you still need some convincing about why you should oppose this bill - even if you do not identify as LGBTQIA+, please keep reading.

Let’s start with background information about the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021”

The first draft bill on the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values 2021” was presented in July 2021 by a group of Members of Parliament (MPs) backed by the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, “an amalgamation of Christian and Para-Christian bodies, Muslims, Non-Religious entities, Traditional rulers and opinion leaders in Ghana” (GNA, 2021). The group of MPs, led by Sam George (MP for Ningo-Prampram), come from both the ruling New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress. The bill was first read in Parliament in August, 2021and subsequent readings and debates will be held in October of the same year.

According to Sam George, the leading ‘voice’ of the Anti-LGBTQI+ Bill in parliament, he felt moved to put this issue at the top of his priorities, as an MP representing a constituency that had the second highest incidence of poverty in the Greater Accra Region (GSS, 2015) despite growing levels of gentrification, because “what really really really ticked (him) off was the presence of diplomats” (Interview, Face to Face, 2021) at an opening event for a safe space for LGBTQIA+ Ghanaians seeking refuge. The event in question had already led to a security raid on the safe space, the going into hiding by some of the at risk persons, and much public abuse and danger to queer people around the country.

An erroneous assertion that people ignorant of African histories often make is one that is quoted in the bill - that “throughout history, nowhere does the Ghanaian culture subscribe to LGBTQI which is a taboo, inhuman and alien to our society ... ”. Not only is it blatantly false, it is also succumbing to the very colonial mentality that the people who say such things purport to oppose.

As Kuukuwa Andam, a Ghanaian lawyer, and researcher of queer histories in Africa has written:

“we have always had gays, lesbians etc. among us. We called them names like kojobesia. Centuries ago, anthropologists who visited Africa discovered homosexuals living here. And yet we all lived together in harmony. So why the sudden urgency to kill off our own brothers and sisters?”

Even in contemporary times, homosexuality and queerness is more a part of our lives and cultures in Ghana than people would have us believe. Though most people are driven to secrecy out of fear of persecution and oppression, researchers have found that a significant number of Ghanaians are queer. For instance in a survey of 974 Ghanaians conducted in 2009, I. D. Norman, B. Awiah, F. A. Norvivor, J. Komesuor, M. Kweku, F. N. Binka found that

  • 42% of Christians and 42% of Moslems in Ghana describe themselves as bisexual

  • 43% of single people in Ghana describe themselves as bisexual

  • 42% of people in Ghana who are married with children describe themselves as bisexual.

  • 5% of people in Ghana who are married with children describe themselves as homosexual

From this survey, the “first of its kind where a cross-sectional study of this nature has been carried out”, it is clear that a significant proportion of people in Ghana are among the LGBTQIA+ community.

Angel Maxine has expressed this through her song titled “Wo fie” through the chorus “Kojo besia, Ebi wɔ wo fie. Supi supi, Ebi wɔ wo fie. Trumu trumu, Ebi wɔ wo fie”, translated as “There are effeminate men in your family. There are lesbians in your family. Anal sex happens in your family”. This tallies which what Norman, Awiah, Komesuor, Kweku and Binka found, especially as they put it “whether bisexuality or homosexuality, more and more Ghanaians seem to be engaging in anal sex, or have had an experience with homosexuality and are willing to report it, although anonymously.”

Many others have written and spoken at length about the unjustness, absurdity, violence, and cruelty of the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill”, and the rampant homophobia in Ghanaian society. I’ve linked these in the reading list below, if you’re looking for further reading, please check these out in the list at the end of this article.

The creation of this bill and the attempts to pass it into law is reminiscent of periods in our history where the powerful have used the law to oppress others. The Slave Codes, for example, were used to justify the brutal enslavement of our African ancestors in the USA and the Caribbean where parliamentarians like Sam George and his colleagues made slavery legal and dehumanised black people by law. Discrimination against women has also been codified into law in the past and present where in certain places women are prevented from inheriting property, receiving an education or living freely in society. As black people, as women, and as people who are often among other minorities around the world, we must refuse to watch others being oppressed… if not out of a sense of justice, then because it might be our turn next.

Or, more significantly in our Ghanaian context because we cannot trust the law enforcement and judicial system with such draconian laws.

Why you should be worried, even if you’re “against LGBTQ+” people

Imagine this. You’re returning from a night out with a group of friends. It’s just after 1:00am and you’re exhausted but in high spirits. You just have to drop two more people off at their houses before you make your way home. One of these is your closest friend who lives just a few houses down your street so really, it’s just one more stop before you get home.

You notice that cars ahead of you are slowing down. It’s a police checkpoint. Everyone in the car tenses up and little and someone mtchews loudly. But when you get close to the checkpoint they wave you on. As you drive by you notice why - the police have stopped a Mercedes with DV License plates. Your Corolla, as nice as it is, is nothing compared to that gleaming 2020 Mercedes model. You all burst out laughing at making jokes about how well the police are going to chop off that DV Plate Mercedes guy. 5 minutes later, you drop off one person at home. Now it’s just a 15-minute drive to your house.

As you turn unto a recently tarred road, you see the familiar flashing torchlight of another police checkpoint.

“Ah since when do they have a checkpoint here?”, your friend asks in amazement.

“Dezemba tins”, you respond, calculating mentally how much to dash the officer, and hoping he’s not too demanding. This time they signal you to pull over. There are no other cars. This is not a busy road at all.

You pull over as directed, roll down your window with your friendliest smile.

“Officer!”, you say “Evening o, How far”

Officer does not smile back. “Open your boot. We’re conducting security check”

You had one drink. It was not enough to make you drunk or even tipsy, but you’re tired and a bit slow. So you forget that your sister told you about her friend’s aunt’s church member who had wee planted in his car by some policeman, and how you must always make sure you’re watching when they search your car. You pop the trunk open and exchange an irritated glance with your friend in the front seat.

You hear some rummaging in the trunk and take out the 20 Ghana Cedis in your glove compartment. You’re hoping this will be quick, you still have to get some sleep before church tomorrow.

“Please come out of the car”, the policemen says from behind the open trunk. You obey, noting that the other policemen at the checkpoint are walking towards the trunk too. You start to get nervous. You reach the open trunk. There’s a bag that is definitely not yours and was definitely not there when you left home this evening.

“What is this”, he asks, indicating the open bag of dildos, condoms and other things you cannot identify.

You stammer something unintelligible, sweat beading on your forehead and nose even though it is not a warm night and there is a breeze. You feel nauseous and faint and panicked, so you are not even sure you heard right when he says something like “You are under arrest of suspected gayism”

We simply cannot trust the security service and the judicial system as we all know and experience it in Ghana with such a draconian law. Even if you believe that LGBTQIA+ people should all be jailed, common sense should tell you that a bill that seeks to jail people for things like:

  1. running a hotel, restaurant, office, or any property where LGBTQIA+ people who are suspected of having sex, or

  2. having any material on your phone that can be framed as “for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under this Act” to be leave too much space for malicious. Think of all the unwanted whatsapp forwards you get, for instance,

is a terrible idea that will certainly be abused maliciously. For this, under the proposed bill you would be liable “on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years”. Are you willing to risk any one person having this much power to make possibly unfounded allegations against you?

Think long and hard of the consequences - if not the intended, then the unintended ones - of passing such a Bill, and do the sensible thing. Oppose the bill. Send a memo to parliament. You can adapt any of the reasons I have outlined in the attached template.

 
Kuukuwa Manful
Previous

Opposing the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill. An Update, and a Note of Appreciation
Next

Osibisa and some 1980s Ghana Fashion