Following the denial of Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin of a post from his social media handle that indicated that it was wrong to jail people for their sexual orientation, a video has emerged of him making what appears to be the same comments.
The said video, which is the consideration of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Bill (anti-gay bill) in February 2024, showed the now Minority Leader, when he was the Deputy Majority Leader, arguing against the custodial punishment in the bill.
Afenyo-Markin, who is the Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency in the Central Region, asserts that jailing people who are homosexual would even make them worse off.
“To jail a person for his sexuality or her sexuality would not be the solution in maintaining our Ghanaian family values and ensuring proper human sexual rights, Mr Speaker, in the least, such individuals who get into our jails become worse off.
“Mr Speaker, as a law student in my final year at Makola, upon visiting Nsawam with my colleagues, it became clear that inmates were being sodomized. It became clear that people were rather getting deeper into that habit and that behavioural aspect of our culture that we dislike,” he argued.
He, therefore, urged the House not go on with the consideration of the bill, saying, “I dare say, Mr Speaker, that will be retrogressing should we insist as a House on a third reading with these incarceration provisions in the bill.”
About Afenyo-Markin’s post:
The Minority Leader distanced himself from a social media post that sparked intense debate after it appeared to criticise the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025.
In the message, the account attributed to Afenyo-Markin appeared to argue that criminalising people based on their sexual orientation amounted to punishing individuals for who they are and whom they choose to associate with.
“A law that imprisons people for their sexual orientation or who they choose to love does not protect society. It simply selects a group of human beings and makes their existence a crime,” the post read.
The post further suggested that such legislation risked crossing a boundary that lawmakers should not endorse.
“That is a line no Parliament in the civilised world should cross,” the post added.
The comments quickly gained traction online, generating widespread discussion and prompting questions about the Minority Leader’s stance on a bill that remains one of the country’s most polarising pieces of legislation.
As screenshots of the post continued to circulate, the publication was deleted and replaced with a brief disclaimer from Afenyo-Markin, who denied authoring the message.
“Kindly disregard this post. Account was compromised,” the message said.
Source: Ghanaweb