Dancehall artiste Livingstone Etse Satekla also known as Stonebwoy has asserted that most people show their love through hate.
He explained that it is not easy dealing with such persons but he has been able to navigate through them.
“Hate is just like death, it is part of life. Hate is part of love because some people don’t know how to love you so they hate you to love you,” he said.
“Because they follow you every day and the first thing you post they are the first to see it. So if you hate me don’t even watch it. So they love you but that’s how they can express it, through hate,” Stonebwoy further stated.
According to him, in dealing with such a situation, one has to rise above the normal to be able to understand and navigate through it.
“Although it is not easy. Sometimes you fall off by coming down low but you learn some lessons there. So we have been trying to navigate it well. Hate is part of love and love is part of hate,” he reiterated.
Dancehall artiste Stonebwoy also disclosed that his life is a miracle considering what he has been through over the years.
He stated that he has been through a lot but by the grace of God, he is a successful person.
“If you want to see the greatness of God in everything, look at my life. We started at Ashaiman, a ghetto youth. People don’t remember that I used to walk one and a half. Because my kneel got tattered in an accident as a teenager. I used to walk stiff and yet I have to win artist of the year,” Stonebwoy stated.
He asserted that despite all the challenges, God brought him far, and has won many awards in Ghana and across the globe.
“So my life is a miracle that’s why tomorrow is going to be another miracle,” he said.
According to him, it is not easy in the creative industry in Ghana.
“The industry that I believe loves you and it gets to the point that they have to give you a special amount of hate you need to deal with. When you go through that, it seems that you become untouchable,” he stated.
Stating That Children Must Be Straight
The multiple-award-winning Afropop, Stonebwoy, revealed that he will not countenance his children being gay or lesbian.
According to the BET award winner who confidently stated that he’s straight, he expects his children to take after him and his wife due to the sort of upbringing they are giving them.
“I believe that people will take after you most often. I am straight, my dad was straight, and my mother was straight. My family line majority of them showed straightness as far as I am concerned. So I believe that I am straight and I can put my hands on that. My wife is straight. My daughter has got to be straight, my son has got to be straight because they are continuing in that certain. So they are going to learn that.”
Stonebwoy
In mid-June 2021, Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana Alban Bagbin stated that LGBT+ rights should not be encouraged or accepted by society and that urgent actions are being taken to pass a law to eventually nip the activities of [LGBT+] groups in the bud.
Later that month, eight MPs in the Parliament proposed the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021. The eight MPs were Sam Nartey George, Della Sowah, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, Alhassan Suhuyini, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, Helen Ntoso, and Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, all of the National Democratic Congress, as well as John Ntim Fordjour of the New Patriotic Party.
On 1 July, Alban Bagbin stated that he expected the law to be passed within six months, telling a prayer meeting of Ghanaian MPs that the LGBT+ pandemic is worse than COVID-19.
On 2 August 2021, the bill passed its first reading in the Ghanaian Parliament, being referred to the Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs.
On 13 October 2021, the majority leader in the Parliament Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said that the Parliament would ensure “careful balance” in assessing the bill.
On 5 November 2021, deputy majority leader Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin announced that the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee would begin hearing petitions in a week, estimating that “we are looking at 15 weeks for the hearings to be done.”
On 12 November 2021, public hearings began on the bill in the Parliament of Ghana. On the first day of hearings, Henry Kwasi Prempeh of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development spoke against the bill. Kyeremeh Atuahene of the Ghana AIDS Commission stated that the bill risked criminalizing anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in the country, and also pushing back against donor funding.
On 30 November 2021, Akwasi Osei of the Mental Health Authority Ghana spoke in support of the bill, saying that homosexuality was abnormal and that a majority of LGBT+ people in Ghana claimed to be queer because of peer pressure.
On 6 December 2021, Moses Foh-Amoaning of the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values spoke in support of the bill, saying LGBT+ people were not well, and the law gives [health authorities] the power to restrain such people.
On 5 July 2023, the Parliament of Ghana unanimously voted to grant the Bill a second reading and agreed to minor amendments proposed by the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
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