Ghana could face possible USA and EU sanctions for clamping down on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex Rights (LGBTQI+). A lesbian is a woman who has sexual pleasure with another woman; a gay is a man who lusts after another man and actually has sex with the man; a bisexual is any person who has sex with both sexes; a transgender is a man or woman who changes their current sex to the opposite sex etc.
Transgender people claim they feel trapped in the wrong bodies and insist on their right to alter their God-given sexes. The ‘Queer-Intersex’ include things such as ‘bestiality rights’. Bestiality means that a man or woman can elect to have sexual relations with an animal as a matter of right. Some European countries have already passed laws to legalise bestiality and marriage to animals. So, it is not uncommon for a woman to marry and have sex with, say, a dog in some European countries. Perhaps, in the not distant future, they will demand the right to have open sex – and this could be another ‘right’ they would be pushing in Ghana.
Other issues the LGBTI+ activists are pursuing as ‘rights’ include ‘trans-racial’ (a person of another race behaving like the opposite race); ‘trans-abled’ (these are people who are physically able, but who feel they should have been born disabled); or an old person can start behaving like a baby because he/she feels like an infant. In contrast, a child can also start behaving like an adult because he/she feels like an adult. The question is, where do all these lead us to? In my view, this is nothing but cultural absurdity and gender insanity; and if allowed to fester, could destroy our morality as people created in the image of God.
US election and Ghana
Under normal circumstances, Ghanaians and Africans in general should not be bothered by the outcome of a presidential election in the United States of America. The political and economic ramifications aside, issues of religion, cultural and morality have kindled African interest in the USA presidential elections. The LGBTI+ agenda was one main reason many Ghanaians, especially the clergy, prayed for Donald Trump to win the American Presidency, despite his poor handling of the rampant and reckless shooting of African-Americans.
Rev Owusu Bempah a renowned prophet, is well known in Ghana for openly campaigning for Donald Trump – for fear that a Democratic Presidency under Joe Biden would once more revolutionarise and fund the LGBTQI+ movement, not only in America but also in Africa. On assuming office on January 20, 2021, the Democrats threatened to impose economic sanctions and visa restrictions on any poor country that clamps down on LGBTQI+.
The Democratic Party’s linkage of aid to LGBTQI+ is ably supported by Norway, Finland and other European Union countries. The United Kingdom and Australia are other countries that have committed to promoting LGBTQI+ activities in Ghana. In fact, the former British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, is on record as having threatened economic sanctions against African countries which fail to uphold LGBTQI+ rights. Ghana’s former president, John Agyekum Kufuor, called Cameron’s bluff and emphasised that Ghana would never sacrifice its culture for western aid.
Perhaps the western stance in favour of LBGTQI+ activities in Ghana has emboldened the group that was operating underground. Further, the LGBTQI group could be drawing inspiration from the news that the president of the Same-Sex Association in sub-Saharan Africa is a Ghanaian. A few weeks ago, the group brazenly opened their office at Kwabenya, a suburb of Accra, amid public outcry. Both the Catholic Bishops Conference and Christian Council of Ghana have voiced their concern over the rise of LGBTQI+ activities in Ghana. Other coalitions have sprung up over the past few weeks to mount pressure on the government of Ghana and Parliament to take a bold stance against LGBTQI+.
National coalition
The National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values has been leading the campaign against LGBTQI+. The Coalition is an amalgamation of Christian and Para-Christian bodies, Muslims, Non-Religious entities, Traditional rulers and opinion leaders in Ghana. Its aim is to fight for the preservation of indigenous African traditional, cultural, sexual rights and family values. Last week, the Coalition expressed disapproval over the alleged opening of a LGBTQI+ office in Accra, an act it describes as illegal and an affront to the laws, traditions and customs of Ghana.
The Executive Secretary of the Coalition, Lawyer Moses Foh-Amoaning, at a press briefing said the act was disrespectful to Ghanaians and undermined sovereignty of the State. According to him, Ghana has not signed any international laws permitting the promotion of LGBTQI+ in the country, therefore the EU and USA’s attempt to promote activities of the group is illegal. Lawyer Foh-Amoaning noted that on the contrary, international laws such as the Economic, Cultural, Social and Political Rights of the United Nations treaty, which Ghana has ratified, protect the sovereignty of Ghana to defend its cultural values.
Most Reverend Philip K. Naameh, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, described the LGBTQI agenda as a “complete disorder of the fundamental law of God in creating man and woman. The LGBTQI is a clear departure from God’s purpose for creation,” he said, insisting that the Catholic Church will continue to recognise only marriages between a man and a woman, in accordance with God’s will. In a video circulating on social media, Bishop Samuel N. Mensah, President of Hill Gospel Church International. reminded those promoting the LGBTQI+ agenda that in the beginning God created Adam and Eve (man and woman).
“Yet today, some people want us to believe that God made a mistake by creating man and woman,” he stressed. According to Bishop Mensah, since he was born he has never heard that any human being was born through the anus. “All human beings have been born through the front passage and not the back passage,” he explained – adding that this order has not changed, and no one can change it.
“We will resist it and honour the living God,” Bishop Mensah pointed out. In the view of Rev Owusu Bempah, LGBTQI+ is a ploy by the west to reduce the population of the world – for the simple reason that if man and man marry and woman and woman marry, who will give birth to repopulate the world in accordance with the will of God. Small wonder that one anti-gay and lesbian activist rightly described LGBTQI+ “as the most embarrassing moment since the creation of humanity”.
Government Response
It will be recalled that shortly after he assumed office in 2017, President Akufo-Addo when confronted with the stance of his government on LGBTQI+ in London, stated that LGBTQI+ had not come to the national agenda, and when it comes up his government will provide the appropriate response. In his response to the recent internal pressure to state his position, President Akufo-Addo said: “Government has no plans to change the law on same-sex marriage. We have no authority to change it, and we will not be seeking any authority to do so”.
During the recent vetting of both the Foreign Affairs Minister designate, Shirley Ayokor Botchway, and Children, Gender and Social Protection Minister-designate, Sarah Adjoa Safo, they affirmed the president’s position that LGBTQI+ is illegal under Ghana’s laws and will not be countenanced under their leadership. Subsequently, the president ordered the security agencies to shut down the office of the LGBTQI+ movement in Accra. The government’s response has sent a strong signal that Ghana stands united against LGBTQI+. Obviously, this stance could be the source of a looming diplomatic row between Ghana and some of its development partners, which are pushing the LGBTQI+ agenda and linking future economic cooperation to LGBTQI+.
Why and how is LGBTQI gaining so much global support? Undoubtedly, the desire of politicians and political parties to please interest and pressure groups and win their votes is the cause of LGBTQI ascendency in the west. Whether LGBTQI will become an accepted norm in Ghana and Africa will depend on political will. Thank God our religious/social leaders are balancing the scales of power on the LGBTQI issue.
LBGTQI as a right?
Are the LGBTQI desires/practices human rights as the west wants Africans to believe? According to Lawyer Moses Foh-Amoaning, LGBTQI activity cannot be claimed as rights under the laws of Ghana, because no one can claim a right from an illegality. He cites Articles 11, 26 and 39 of the 1992 constitution, which enjoin the government of Ghana and the people of Ghana to uphold the cultural rights of Ghana.
These constitutional provisions hold that sovereignty resides in the people of Ghana and that power is to be exercised on behalf of the people of Ghana. Thus, if Ghanaians are collectively against LGBTQI, the state apparatus must work to reflect the will of the people. Lawyer Amoaning posits that no one can have a right when that right destroys the moral fabric of society. He explained that fundamental human rights come out of moral human rights, and moral human rights come from God. According to him, even the European Union Court of Human Rights – in a landmark ruling – stated that LGBTQI rights do not fall the under fundamental and inalienable human rights.
Western conspiracy?
One question on the minds of many Ghanaians is: how did the west has managed to convince many Africans that polygamy is evil but homosexuality is a human right? Must western values become the standard culture for Africa? One commentator describes the imposition of LGBTQI as ‘mental slavery’. The notion of many Ghanaians is that Africa has had enough of the dominance of western culture – from slave trade to colonialisation to the current unfair information and economic order, and now attempts to impose the LGBTQI agenda on Africa.
Perhaps money is playing an influential role in the attempt to plant LGBTQI in Africa. Indications are that some African elites have taken money from western financiers to spread LGBTQI in Africa, with the ultimate aim of destroying African culture. Some conspiracy theories suggest that syphilis and HIV/AIDS were invented to target African populations. It is alleged that the Liberian variant of Ebola was invented to disrupt the Mano River Union States to pave the way for exploitation of the large mineral deposits in Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry. Besides, the initial notions that COVID 19 was invented to ensure dead bodies are littered on the streets of Africa are still fresh in the minds of many Africans. At least, Bill Gate was widely quoted in the media forecasting that COVID-19 would kill more Africans.
On his return to Ghana in 1963, WEB Du Bois said: “But now my life will flow on in the vigorous young stream of Ghanaian life, which lifts the African personality to its proper place among men. The unity of people of African descent is a sacred obligation”.
(***The writer is a Development and Communications Management Specialist, and a Social Justice Advocate. All views expressed in this article are my personal views and do not represent those of any organisation(s). (Email: [email protected]. Mobile: 0202642504/0243327586
