Anti-LGBTQI bill will be passed with common sense – Speaker

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has disclosed that Parliament will employ common sense in passing the anti-gay bill before the House.

The bill before the House has been christened the “the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Right and the Ghanaian Family Values,” for some time now has generated heated national conversations.

According to the Speaker, despite the many controversies that the bill has generated it is healthy for Ghana’s democracy.

“In fact, it has assumed some different dimensions. For me, this is healthy for a maturing democracy like Ghana. It is important we allow various shapes of opinions to canvass their position on the bill. As Ghanaians, I want to plead that we accommodate the views of others on whatever perception they have and let’s maintain the peace that we have.

“It is a law that will take into consideration the richness of common sense, human decency, morality, fact and logic. At the end of the day it will be a law that will transform this country into something else,” he stated during his opening remarks as Parliament reconvened on Tuesday.

Mr. Bagbin called on the Members of Parliament (MPs) to allow the religious bodies, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), persons in the academia among others to participate in the deliberations.

The Rt Hon. Speaker assured Ghanaians that the process of passing the bill will be made public, “the seating of the Committee will be public and the decision of this House will be public. We will want to know where each Member of Parliament comes in.

“I know Ghanaians are expectant and there are over hundred petitions before the Committee of Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. But we will try not allow any Filibustering of this bill. Because it is not only Africa, the whole world is looking for the outcome of this bill.”