BARKER-VORMAWOR – Anti-LGBT bill bans sex in its entirety

Cambridge Researcher, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, says should the Anti-LGBT bill be passed in its current form, sex between a man and his wife would be as illegal as sex between same-sex couples.

Speaking on JoyNews, he explained that the bill, which he describes as poorly written and absurd, would inadvertently affect many issues it probably did not intend to affect.

Citing an example from the bill, Mr Barker-Vormawor explained that the definition of pansexual activities in the proposed bill was problematic and could be used to refer to sex between a man and a woman.

The proposed bill defines a pansexual as “a person who engages in a sexual or romantic activity with persons of any gender identity or expression including persons who do not fit into the binary sex categorisation of male and female.”

Explaining his point, he said, “The law does define what it means by pansexual activities, and it says a pansexual means a person who engages in sexual or romantic activity with a person of any gender.

“Now this is important because by this meaning, if you say that pansexual activity is wrong, then it implies that if a person is engaged in sexual or romantic activity with persons of any gender, then thereby they would have done something criminal.

“By this view, if a guy engages in sex with their wife, obviously the wife is of a different gender. So by that intellect, the law is implying that this is a pansexual activity. So what I am saying is that they have ended up banning sex in its entirety because of its…improper definition of what they’ve done. And this problem persists across the bill.”

The Anti-LGBT bill officially called the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 will see culprits face a jail term of up to ten years depending on the crime if passed in its current state.

It is being sponsored by Ningo–Prampram legislator Sam George; Kpando MP Della Adjoa Sowah; Ho West MP Emmanuel Bedzrah; John Ntim Fordjour, MP, Assin South; South Dayi MP Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, MP for Tamale North Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini, MP for Krachi West Helen Adjoa Ntoso and Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, MP for La Dadekotopon.

The Speaker of Parliament has indicated his commitment to making sure the bill is passed before 2021 comes to a close.