Private legal practitioner, Maurice Ampaw
Controversial Ghanaian Lawyer, Maurice Ampaw, has declared that members of the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana do not deserve any peace.
He posits that these persons are a threat to children in the country.
Speaking to Happy FM’s Don Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show, he expressed: “Let’s not make them [LGBTQ+ community] comfortable. They don’t deserve to have peace of mind. This is because they have made up their mind to destroy the good morals we have instilled in our children.”
The lawyer suggested that all members of the LGBTQ+ community must be disciplined the traditional way. “The LGBTQ+ community needs discipline. Every traditional leader should bring out punishment for these persons. We must use the traditional method to punish this community.”
Earlier this year, the Speaker of Parliament received a private member bill from some MPs that would expand on the current law that provides up to three years in prison for same-sex activity.
Reports have it that the new bill when passed will prohibit and criminalize advocacy, funding, and the act of LGBTQ+ while promoting conversion therapy programs seeking to “convert” people from homosexuality to heterosexuality.
Meanwhile, fifteen renowned legal, academic and civil society professionals have filled a memorandum challenging the anti-gay legislation submitted to Parliament.
In the memorandum, they contend that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, which seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ and adjacent activities, is an “impermissible invasion of the inviolability of human dignity.”
Some Christian leaders, on the other hand, have submitted a memorandum to Parliament on the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, endorsing the bill.