Hon Sam George, Member of Parliament (MP) for the good people of Ningo Prampram has noted that the United States can only react to issues of LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana, if President Joe Biden allows polygamy in his country.
The MP was responding to a comment from the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer, who advised Ghanaian Members of Parliament to respect the rights of all persons, regardless of their sexual preference.
The Ambassador had said in an interview that, “We are not commenting on the morality of this. We are just asking for people’s rights to be respected so that they be left peaceful and free from harm.”
However, Hon Sam George opined that the United States lacks the moral grounds to raise issues about human rights because the US is against people getting married to more than one spouse.
“We will take a lecture from the American Ambassador when her government decides not to discriminate against people who have right to polygamy in the United States. When they respect the right of persons to marry multiple women or multiple men as they so choose, which is also the fundamental human right to association, then we will have a conversation.
“But until they are able to respect the right of persons in the US who want to be polygamous, then they don’t have any moral right to talk to us.”
Sam George
The lawmaker further disclosed that until the US signed up with the International Criminal Court, they cannot educate Ghana on human rights.
“For now the US government is the last government that should speak about human rights. They are the biggest abusers of human rights and so we will give them a lecture on human rights. They have to respect the fundamental human rights of people and not the other way round.”
Sam George
Currently, The parliament of Ghana is considering the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values 2021 which will amongst other things, prohibit advocacy of same-sex or homosexual practices in the Country.
Ghanaian MPs Must Respect Peoples’ Rights
United States Ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Palmer in an interview, advised Ghanaians and their representatives in Parliament to respect international obligations and Domestic laws which centre on the need to protect the rights of all persons, irrespective of their sexual orientation.
The foreign diplomat noted that discrimination of all kinds is bad, hence the need for social protection measures to protect the them.
Commenting on tightening of laws against homosexuals in the country, Virginia Palmer said that, “I think in some ways it is being used as a political hot potato and what I am saying is that I hope that Ghana’s citizens, Ghana’s parliamentarians, Ghana’s leaders will respect Ghana’s Constitution and its international obligations to which it is a signatory.”
Ambassador Virginia suggested that calls for the protection of the rights of persons of same-sex desires should not be misconstrued as an attempt by the US government to promote LGBQT interests in Ghana.
“I also want to be really clear that we are not trying to be promoting homosexuality or anything like that. We don’t want your straight children to be gay, we want your gay children to be safe and I think it is very important that any sort of threat on one group demonstrates that rights of other people can be encroached upon and discrimination of any kind frankly, is bad”
Ambassador Virginia
In its 2021 annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the US Department of State expressed concern about significant human rights issues such as crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex persons; existence of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults.
At the moment, it is unclear when Parliament’s Constitutional legal and parliamentary Affairs Committee will conclude its report on the Bill.
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