Andy Kankam, Editor of the Informer Newspaper
Editor of the Informer Newspaper, Andy Kankam, says no one should be pressured into accepting LGBTQ+ in exchange for foreign aids.
His comments come at the back of the opposition that has met the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value Bill 2021 which was introduced to parliament earlier this year.
He posits that there is no foreign aid so huge that as a country we will throw away our cherished values.
“Ghanaians have values and that is what we should be proud of. This is because these values distinguish us from other people. I have heard people making the argument that we are going into the realm that if we don’t take care, we will not receive certain economic aids. To hell with their economic aids,” he told Sefa Danquah on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy 98.9FM.
Speaking on the bill, however, Andy has encouraged that the bill is relooked at so that we avoid the situation of a defective bill which may not garner many votes in favor of it.
He also stressed that while we have the discourse on LGBTQ+, “we should be civil, not clouded with emotions and we should speak to the main issues so that at the end of the day, Ghana will be victorious.”
Some legislators presented a copy of the draft of the Bill to the Speaker of Parliament. This bill is seeking to expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.
The new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding and act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Already there are fears that the bill could face pressure from international donors and legal challenges, as the U.N. experts said it violated international conventions to which Ghana is party, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While some have endorsed the bill, others have contended that the bill is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”