Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has said that he supports the non-criminalization of homosexuality which is the position of the Christian denomination to which he belongs, the Catholic Church.
Personally, he said, he does not think that somebody claiming to be a lesbian or gay should go to jail.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s parliamentary reporter, Komla Klutse on Tuesday, November 28, the Effutu lawmaker said “I am a Catholic and the position of the Catholic church is very clear, … and I don’t think that what the church has said I should hold a contrary view to it.
“The church says that by the culture of Africans, we are against same-sex marriage, but it is also against criminalizing somebody who has that sexual orientation. I am a catholic, I don’t hold a contrary view to what the Catholic church is saying.”
He stressed “The Catholic Church is saying it will be wrong to criminalize somebody’s sexual orientation and so be it. Personally, I don’t think that somebody claiming to be a lesbian or gay should go to jail, by virtue of that.”
His comments come after the chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences, Cardinal Peter Turkson said that there is no need to criminalise homosexuality.
He said persons with gay and lesbian tendencies have committed no crime.
“LGBT people may not be criminalised because they’ve committed no crime. To criminalise anybody, you need to identify the crime,” he said.
Cardinal Peter Turkson said this during an interview on BBC Hardtalk programme on November 27, 2023.
He explained what has resulted in efforts to enact laws against homosexual activities “what caused all of this is attempt to link some foreign donations and grants to certain positions… in the name of freedom, in the name of respect for rights”.
He therefore stated that, “Neither should this position become an imposition on cultures which are not yet ready to accept stuff like that.”
The interview was held against the background that Ghana‘s Parliament is currently considering the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 that if passed, will prohibit acts of homosexuality.
The proponents want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalised in the country.
Cardinal Turkson suggested that “It’s time to begin education, to help people understand what this reality, this phenomenon is. We need a lot of education to get people to… make a distinction between what is crime and what is not crime,” he stressed.
The cleric also said that the LGBTQI phenomenon has been known in Ghana for many years.
According to him, this is found in the Akan expression “Kojo Besia’ or “Obaa barima.”
“In the Akan language, that of mine, there is an expression “men who act like women and women who act like men. If culturally we had expressions… it just means that it’s been known to the Ghanaian society,” he explained.
Cardinal Turkson became the first-ever Ghanaian cardinal in 2003 when he was appointed by Pope John Paul II.