Opposers to LGBTQ also have a right to voice out concerns – Minister of Justice
If you have the right to say allow LGBQT activities, others also have the right to say disallow – Godfred Dame to LGBQT advocates
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has indicated that persons who are opposed to the activities of Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQI) people also have a right to voice out their concerns.
Speaking in an interview on Accra based Citi TV and monitored by myactiveonline.com, the Attorney General explained that individuals who oppose the activities of LGBTQI should feel free to voice out their concerns in the same way advocates of LGBTQ promote their activities.
Mr. Godfred Dame said that the government’s official stance on LGBTQI is in line with the constitutional provisions on such activities and that is being enforced.
“Regarding the state’s position on LGBTQI, it is the laws of Ghana, which are being enforced, beyond that I am not aware of a situation whereby the state has meted out violence or the state has supported any infliction of violence against any person engaged in the activity.”
“The right to engage in LGBTQI activity which of course may be in the exercise of somebody’s fundamental human rights of free expression should also warrant that when a person has opposed the practice, that person should also be free to engage in the activity. So I deplore the situation where persons engaged in anti-LGBT activity are perceived to be backward. Once you have the right to advocate for the practice, someone also has the right to advocate against the practice.”
Speaking on the back of the arrest and subsequent granting of bail for some 21 persons who were arrested for unlawful assembly to promote LGBTQI activities, Mr. Dame explained that, the arrest made was not in relation to the sexuality of the suspects, but rather because they had converged from different parts of the country and had no reasons for their assembly.
He was of the view that the persons involved were arrested and charged with the offence of “unlawful assembly”.
Mr. Godfred Dame also explained that the decision to refuse the bail was entirely the discretion of the judge, as the Attorney General department’s representative on the case did not even oppose the bail during the hearing.
“Firstly, I am not aware that the people arrested in Ho were arrested for an LGBT activity. What I am aware of, is that they were charged with the offence of unlawful assembly, and they were denied bail because the people had congregated, from various parts of the country. They hailed from various parts of the country; some from Bawku, Takoradi, the Eastern Region and they all congregated in Ho, and they couldn’t explain why they were in the room in the hotel, and they couldn’t explain the purpose and the reason why they were there.”
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
