A legal practitioner has clarified that the anti-LGBT bill passed by parliament last year but never signed into law by former President Nana Akufo-Addo seeks to punish the promoters of homosexuality and other queer behaviour rather than target gays and queers themselves.
Mr Emmanuel Kojo Mensah, who was also the Trobu parliamentary candidate on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last year’s elections, told Bullet TV’s breakfast show, Morning Target, hosted by Seli Acolatse Apaloo and Nana Yaw Fianko, on Thursday, 30 December 2025, that: “A lot of people have actually not looked at the bill and they are effectively propagating that this bill infringes on people’s fundamental human rights and all of that and that is what most of them actually propagated when it comes to this advocacy for LGBT rights but what the bill is actually doing is indicating that look, ‘If you are found to be doing it, the remedy is for you to get help but those that are promoting it; if you look at the bill, it is those that are promoting it that the bill is actually trying to target and actually give them a lot of punishment than those that are practising it.”
He reiterated: “For those that are practising it, what they are saying is, ‘Look, try and seek some help,’ and they will make those support systems available within the country to help them but when it comes to those that are propagating it, for example TV stations that are propagating it, advocacy groups and etc., that is where the law wants to [look at] so that it can curtail the development of that practice. That is what the bill mainly targets.”
The bill was tabled as a private members’ bill by some MPs led by Mr Samuel Nartey George, the representative of the Ningo Prampram seat.
After its passage by parliament, President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration raised some legal concerns with the bill and later said he would attend to it once certain court actions related to the bill had been dealt with.
After assuming office, President John Mahama has also indicated that he would rather the bill was a government-sponsored one with broad-based consultation.
Mr Nartey George, the lead advocate of the bill, recently told parliament’s Appointments Committee that he intended to reintroduce the bill to parliament.
