How US Embassy delayed my visa for three months – Sam George recounts

Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament, Sam Nartey George, has disclosed how his advocacy for the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill has earned him attacks from institutions that are pro-same-sex relations.

He opened up specifically about attempts to cancel him - call him out in public, through to cancellation of his appearance on programmes that are sometimes totally unrelated to his specific advocacy.

On the issue of visa bans by some Western countries, he confirmed that he hadn’t personally been banned or refused a visa but that the US embassy had in the past delayed his visa for three months.

“They did not refuse me, they delayed it. Parliament sent six applications, including mine. Five were given, mine took an additional three months before it came,” he told Bola Ray on the December 14, 2023, edition of Starr Chat show.

“They said administrative (issues), that is why I didn’t say they refused me,” he reaffirmed talk of having been denied a visa.

He also noted an instance where he was removed from a digital rights conference because pro-gay activists had protested his participation.

“I was invited to speak in Costa Rica at the Digital Rights Conference. The next thing, they (organizers) said they got petitions from around the world against me coming to speak. So, they wrote me and said don’t even respond to this email, we don’t want to have anything to do with you. I didn’t go, they should take their conference,” he added.

Sam George and seven other MPs are the brains behind the Promotion of Proper Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021; popularly known as the Anti-LGBT Bill.

The Bill currently before Parliament is expected to be passed and transmitted to the president for assent before MPs go on the Christmas break.

It has sharply divided opinion in the public with majority of Ghanaians expressing support despite stiff opposition from some quarters.

You can’t cancel me, I am too big to be canceled.

Ningo Prampram MP, Sam George #MorningStarr w/ @TheRealBolaRay pic.twitter.com/MIjsN859co

— GHOne TV (@GHOneTV) December 14, 2023