Dr. Charles Prempeh, an African Studies scholar, has backed the anti-LGBTQ legislation currently before Parliament.
In a 28-paged memo to Parliament, he remarked that LGBTQ advocacy was “part of elitist culture being imposed on all Ghanaians.”
He argued that the Bill, which has faced criticism both home and abroad, was a forward-thinking move by its backers.
“From the above, it is clear that the west is rather backwards because they are going for the anti-thesis of their civilization.”
Dr. Prempeh, who also identifies as a Christian, said: “This is hard for all of us, but the Holy Spirit is our help. In the end, we should retain the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, pass it into law, as we incorporate compassion rather than condemnation, without compromising our Christian based ontological values on heterosexual relations, in our engagement with homosexuals.”
He added that “the state must rather protect God’s ontological vision of marriage as the sole ontological means of procreation.”
The Bill, known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, prescribes that people of the same sex who engage in sexual activity could spend up to 10 years in jail.
Support for the LGBTQ+ community would also be criminalised.
The Bill is currently before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs ahead of Parliament’s resumption later in October.
Click here to read the full memorandum from Dr. Charles Prempeh