I support anti-LGBTQ bill but against imprisoning gays – Vincent Assafuah

Vincent Ekow Assafuah, Deputy Minister-designate for the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development has acknowledged that while he wholeheartedly supports the passage of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, he believes that merely ostracising gays from society is not the solution.

He advocated for parliament to be interested in the reformation of homosexuals and not allow them to go astray.

Parliament on February 28 passed the bill on Human Sexual Rights and Family Values also known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.

The bill proscribes LGBTQ+ activities and criminalises its promotion, advocacy and funding.

Persons caught in the act would be subjected to six months to three-year jail term with promoters and sponsors of the act bearing a three-to-five-year jail term.

Speaking on the bill during his vetting by Parliament’s Appointment’s Committee in Accra on Monday, March 11, Mr Assafuah indicated that it was parliament’s responsibility to ensure the reformation and integration of gays back into society.

“In principle, the LGBTQ bill that has been passed or approved by parliament is one that I support wholeheartedly because it is in consonance with my tradition and culture. It is in consonance with my formation as a catholic person or practising catholic.

“However, there are reasons for punishment to be meted out to people. There is a principle behind punishment and one of the principles is to ensure that a person is being reformed out of a criminal activity. And so, if we have to reform persons, do we have to mete out punishment that seems to ostracise the person from society? It seems that as a society, we are bringing out our failures in the sense that we are showing our inability or incapacity to be able to reform people or if you like put people through sessions that reintroduce such persons into society. If we are not able to do so. That is where I see the failure.”

“It seems we are throwing our hands in despair. I am making a strong point that as a Parliament, we should be very interested in reforming our people. That is our responsibility as a people. We cannot say that there is a supposed anticipation of gay persons being lynched if they are given community service and so because of that as the people’s representatives we are throwing our hands in despair to allow such persons just to go astray.

“That cannot be our course. Let’s have a proper forum, let’s have proper engagements to see how best we can deal with such persons. It is our responsibility to do so,” he stated.