Traditional Ruler supports anti- LGBTQI+ Bill

The Paramount Chief and Overload of Weta Traditional Area in the Ketu North Municipality, Torgbuiga Akpo Ashiakpor VI, has called for wider support for the passage of the Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer and its related activities (LGBTQI+) Bill currently before Parliament into law.

He asserted that traditional leaders are the custodians of customs and traditions hence the need to get them protected at all cost.

"Every nation is built on traditions and customs and we are the custodians of these customs and traditions of the people," he said.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema on the position of the traditional leaders on the debate on passage of the promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values Bill, 2021 and the opposition against it, Torgbuiga emphasised the urgent need to protect the family system hence the need to pass the Anti-LGBTQI+ bill.

Torgbuiga Ashiakpor VI, who is also the Ashaiman Area Chairman for the Church of Pentecost Royals Ministry, said the activities of the LGBTQI+ was devious, unbiblical and unclean and urged Ghanaians to avoid such practices.

He stressed that traditional leaders were strongly behind the passage of the bill and would resist any attempt to push the practice into the Ghanaian system.

He said the practice conflicted with the traditions and customs of Ghanaians.

On Wednesday, October 6th, 2021 Apostle Eric Nyamekye, who is the chairman of The Church of Pentecost and Apostle Dr. Aaron Ami-Narh, President of the Apostolic Church, Ghana, led a delegation which presented a memorandum of 15,000 signatures to Parliament’s Committee for Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to express strong support for the bill dubbed “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.

Meanwhile, the group of 18 high profile professionals in various fields including law and academia have submitted a memo to Parliament to kick against the anti-LGBTQI+ bill.

To them, the proponents of the bill had not provided any data or evidence to suggest that there is such a threat, beyond a resort to some dogmatic religious tenets and so-called Ghanaian family values hence want the bill rejected.