Anti-Gay Bill: US Ambassador Virginia Palmer Says She Yearns For Safety Of Gay Children In Ghana

• The Ambassador of the United States of America to Ghana has debunked claims that the US is promoting LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana
• Virginia Palmer says her opposition to the anti-gay bill stems from her love to see gay children being given safe havens in Ghana
• Her comments follow moves by parliament to consider and debate the bill which is currently before the constitutional committee for deliberations

Virginia Palmer, the Ambassador of the United States of America to Ghana, says their advocacy for the protection of the rights of homosexuals in the country should not be misconstrued as an attempt to promote the act.

According to her, what she and other like-minded people abhor is the discrimination targeted at such persons involved in the act.

US Ambassador Calls For Protection Of Gay Groups In Ghana

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Speaking to Accra-based Joy News, the foreign diplomat called for the need for social protection measures to protect the minority group saying discrimination of all kinds is bad.

She also added that the advocacy should not be misconstrued as a promotion of homosexuality.

The US Ambassador also clarified that the US and other groups are not pushing for straight children to be gay but rather for gay children to be safe and their rights not trampled upon.

MPs Introduce Anti-Gay Bill To Strengthen Existing Legislation Against Such Acts

Gay sex is already punishable in Ghana with a prison term of three years.

But some believe that the law has several grey areas which don’t properly define the practice.

In that vein, a group of members of parliament led by Samuel Nartey George (Ningo-Prampram MP) introduced legislation known as the “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values.”

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The bill first came to light after some individuals opened Ghana’s first LGBT community centre in Accra.

The bill among others seeks to increase the three-year jail terms to up to a decade with an option for some to undergo “conversion therapy.”

But critics of the bill say it will promote a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against sexual minorities in the country.

Ghana: How Anti-Gay Bill Seeks To Further Exclude Members Of The LGBTQ+ Community

Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that Ghana is among some 69 countries where homosexual intercourse is outlawed, with terrible conditions for gay people, the BBC reported.

In 2006, the Government of Ghana disallowed a gay conference due to fears that it would promote homosexuality and harm the country's culture and morals amid backlash from politicians, the media, and civil and religious groups.

Though Ghana's laws already ''proscribe'' homosexual intercourse by prohibiting ''unnatural carnal knowledge'' in section 104 (1) (b) of its Criminal Offences Act, albeit a colonial legacy, the country seeks to even do more with the anti-gay bill submitted to the nation's Parliament.

Source: YEN.com.gh