Chairman of the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, has cautioned members of the LGBTQ+ community from engaging in acts that would make Ghanaians angry.
He says their recent alleged actions of erecting billboards that promote their activities give rise to provocations and tension among the populace, especially in the face of the controversial Anti-LGBTQ bill under consideration in Parliament.
“I think they are just making people angry. If they can hear me, if they did it [erected the billboard on the Accra-Tema motorway], they must stop that. I would actually advise them to refrain from making people angry in Ghana.
“The community themselves, they should be warned. Why should they be [undertaking] acts that would actually make people angry? Ghana is [made up of] Christians and Muslims. Even if there are atheists, they are in a small proportion; so, if you do that, you infuriate the tension and emotions,” he told JoyNews’ Manuel Koranteng in an interview on Sunday, June 12.
Sponsors of the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Inspector General of Police to pull down billboards mounted across Accra to promote activities of homosexuals.
The giant billboards have been erected on major roads in the country in commemoration of the gay pride month which falls in June each year.
One of the billboards, which was sighted at the end of the Tema-Accra bound side of the motorway, had the group’s rainbow colors with an inscription promoting their activities.
That billboard was later removed.
On this score, Mr Anyimadu-Antwi called on members of the LGBTQ community to hold their horses as Parliament considers the Bill.
He, however, said the impression being made that the Committee is delaying the passage of the Bill is unfortunate and untrue.
“Actually, I do not know what the sign is; I don’t understand that sign but if indeed it is a sign of the LGBTQ, I think they should be warned because their activities brought about this controversial bill before Parliament.
“What I am saying is that if you have actually gone to get an office, and the Ghanaian society has frowned upon it and has actually warned you and closed the office down, and if it is indeed true that this sign emanates from them, then you go further to erect a billboard when there is an intended Bill, that aims at getting you behind bars if you are caught, then I think they are just making people angry,” he stressed.