Ghana’s new president, John Dramani Mahama, told a council of conservative Catholic bishops that the country’s proposed draconian anti-LGBTQ law is effectively dead, Modern Ghana reports.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
“As far as I know, the bill did not get to the [former] president for assent, and so the convention is that all bills that are not passed before the expiration of the life of Parliament expire,” Mahama told the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, earlier this month.
Despite supporting the law while campaigning for the presidency, Mahama said he wanted to open a dialogue with “stakeholders” in the proposed law before he would sign any new legislation.
“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do, but I do think that we should have on it again so that all of us, if we decided to move that bill forward, we move it forward with a consensus, and probably it shouldn’t be a private member’s bill. It probably should be a government bill with the government behind it after consultation with stakeholders.”
The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act would outlaw all forms of same-sex sexual relations as well as those between humans and animals. The proposed law calls for prison sentences for people identifying as LGBTQ+ and for individuals forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups. Parliament passed the bill on February 28, and it survived multiple challenges in court. Parliament dissolved before the bill was presented to former President Nana Akufo-Addo, however, leaving the decision to Mahama.
Broadcast lawyer Richard Sky and concerned citizen D. Amanda Odoi claimed the law was unconstitutional on multiple grounds in their separate failed lawsuits. In addition to the claim that the law violates fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution, the process by which the law was passed, and the expenditure of public funds required to implement the law were also challenged. Speaker of the Parliament Alban Bagbin and parliament were also accused of passing the bill without a proper quorum.
News of Mahama’s statements inflamed Bagbin and other supporters of the proposed law.
“Parliament is the authority on passing laws, not any other person, not the president,” Bagbin said before Parliament last Tuesday, Graphic Onlinereports. “He was wrong, and all of you together punished him for that.”
Bagbin spoke passionately in defense of the law and his beliefs, saying he would rather be dead than live in a society that affirmed and protected LGBTQ+ rights.
“It is better not to live than to live in a society where man to man, woman to woman,” Bagbin declared. “What is that?”
Opponents of the law, however, cautiously applauded Mahama’s statements. Berinyuy Burinyuy, communications director for LGBT+ Rights Ghana, told the Washington Blade the news could signal a shift in the government’s approach to the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana.
“While Mahama may not yet be fully committing to a clear policy direction, his statement leaves open the possibility of a more balanced approach, one that allows for a national conversation on sexual rights without rushing into divisive legislation,” Burinyuy said.