The National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Freddy Blay has called for gays to be allowed to express their desired sexual preference.
According to him, even though he does not embrace the practice as an individual, he does not understand the public outcry and heightened discussions around the issue.
Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Asaase Radio, he expressed his reservations about the ‘hypocrisy’ surrounding the conversation about gays, and called for the practitioners to be left alone.
“I don’t subscribe to gayism. It’s a choice. Because I’m not attracted by them. But I don’t want to go into people’s bedroom. I don’t want to see what they’re doing. If people want to be gays, I think it should be their own problem.
I won’t go ahead to be a persecutor of those who want to be together as man and man, or woman and woman. I think there’s too much hypocrisy about it.
And we’ve been excited, emotions have been excited over it to the extent that we’re not sober over it. I honestly don’t see [what] the hullabaloo is all about. We should allow them”, he noted.
The comments by the NPP National Chairman have been greeted with mixed reactions from a section of the populace on social media.
While some have applauded his suggestions, others have criticised his opinion and accused him of wanting to deepen moral depravation in the country.
The issue about the legalisation of homosexuality in Ghana has been a thorny development in the country, with the population divided on its appropriateness.
Debates have been rife on both traditional and social media about whether the practice of LGBTQ should be tolerated in Ghana or otherwise.
For those rallying behind its legalisation, they have consistently argued that since it does not affect any other party, the practitioners should not be prevented.
On the other hand, the critics have stated that the practice of LGBTQ has the potential of eroding the country’s values and diluting Ghana’s distinct cultural heritage.
Meanwhile, sponsors of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, popularly called the anti-LGBTQ Bill, are lamenting the delay in progressing the proposed legislation through Parliament.
A co-sponsor of the Bill, Emmanuel Bedzrah is demanding answers from the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, which is currently deliberating on the proposal.
According to the Ho West legislator, the silence of the Committee on the Bill is too loud and must at least give an update to the House.
“Since we referred the Bill to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee last year, we have not heard anything. Mr. Speaker, even when we resumed, we have not even seen any indication as to when this Bill will be presented before the House.