Advocate and legal practitioner Moses Foh-Amoaning believes the quickest way to clear the hurdles delaying the passage of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill is for government to reintroduce it as a public bill.
Speaking on JoyNews PM Express, the lead advocate for the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values explained that most of the bill’s current challenges stemmed from its status as a private member’s bill. He argued that a public bill, championed by the government, would automatically address concerns over funding and procedure.
“When the bill is introduced as a public bill, it will solve a lot of issues,” he remarked.
Mr Foh-Amoaning dismissed suggestions that the legislation seeks to criminalize people, stressing that it was crafted with care and consideration. According to him, critics have misunderstood its intent. “The LGBT movement and its propaganda have always been that, ‘Oh, you want to throw people in prison.’ We say, no. You think it’s a lifestyle, you want to glamorize it, that’s fine. We over here think that people who’ve got those challenges, and if they have those challenges, we help them,” he clarified.
He noted that the bill even makes provision for rehabilitation and flexible sentencing. “If you need care, treatment, and support, even during arrest, sentencing, or trial, and you agree that you need help, the law allows for that. The bill offers room for flexible sentencing,” he explained.
Mr Foh-Amoaning also revealed that financial implications were among the reasons the bill stalled. “The issue of cost became an issue because they said, if you use the health facilities, who’s going to pay? Although the drafting language was clear, the former Attorney General objected to it because there were going to be costs,” he said.
He linked this concern to President Akufo-Addo’s earlier stance that the bill would be better managed as a public bill. “That’s what made the President’s viewpoint very interesting. Now that it’s being reintroduced, if the government has no problem, I wish the President would go back to his own position,” he stated.
Mr Foh-Amoaning further disclosed that he had already engaged the Attorney General, who expressed willingness to work with the private sponsors to withdraw the current version. “I have had discussions with the Attorney General. He was keen on talking to the private members who brought it so that they would withdraw theirs, and then he would reintroduce it as a public bill. I think that will resolve many of the issues I’ve mentioned,” he concluded.
