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Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has emphasized that incarcerating individuals based on their sexual orientation will not eradicate homosexuality. He expressed concern that such measures could potentially exacerbate such activities.
Parliament passed the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill, commonly referred to as the anti-LGBTQ bill, on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. This legislation criminalizes LGBTQ activities, including their promotion, advocacy, and funding. Those found guilty could face a jail term ranging from six months to three years, while promoters and sponsors of these activities could face a three-to-five-year jail term.
Despite the church’s support for the bill’s passage, Rev. Gyamfi told Umaru Sanda Amadu in an Eyewitness News interview on Citi FM on Thursday, February 29, that there was a need for a review of the sanctions. He emphasized the need for more reformative and corrective sanctions.
“We think that in the case of this particular law and the way it is being implemented, being placed in prison as the punishment that they have chosen, it is not going to solve the problem. Because you see if you round up same-sex people and you know our prisons, they are going to end up in the same room and what is going to prevent them from going through these activities in the prison?
“And you are not going to put them there forever because they are going to be there for three months to six months. And then they practice this and come out as more experts at it than when you sent them there. Then you release them back into society. So, what is going to happen?
“That is why we were concerned about a punishment that will correct them, that will reform them. So if the government is going this way or if the parliament is going this way that is why we are suggesting that in the prison there, they should add more of the corrective and reformative measures,” he stated.
