Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and former President John Dramani Mahama
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party is asking for the stance of former President John Dramani Mahama on the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill currently before Parliament.
He posed the question in a tweet that read: “Is former President and presidential aspirant John Mahama for or against the Boy George Bill?”
Gabby is on record to have spoken against the bill back in July.
“I am struggling to understand what the promoters of this Bill seek to achieve. Perhaps, it is what will fix the myriad of problems we are facing as a country like finding jobs for the youth and fixing our roads,” he said in a social media post.
The LGBTQ+ subject has gained new lease of life after a group of 18 human rights defenders presented a memo to Parliament advocating against the bill.
That memo galvanised persons who are for the bill, including major church groups and other civil society players who are tasking Parliament to expeditiously pass the bill.
What then President Mahama said about LGBTQ
John Dramani Mahama speaking through his Information Minister at the time, Mahama Ayariga, the former president indicated that the act is criminal and punishable under the laws of Ghana.
“The President is to execute the laws of Ghana. And the laws of Ghana are very clear on homosexuality. The laws of Ghana appal and criminalize homosexuality, there is no dispute about that.
“Homosexual conduct which is unnatural canal knowledge of one person or another is criminal and punishable by the laws of Ghana,” he said.
Ghana’s pro-gay collective
A group of 18 academicians and human rights defenders have voiced strong opposition to the bill before Parliament, which is seeking to extensively criminalize the activities of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, LGBTQ+.
The group submitted a memorandum to Parliament seeking that the bill be rejected because it was largely unconstitutional and infringed on basic human rights.
Members of Parliament behind the bill, led by Ningo Prampram MP Sam Nartey George, have rubbished the memorandum and asserted that the bill will be passed into law because it has the support of the wider Ghanaian populace.