Homosexual unions are unlawful - Coalition

Mr Moses Foh-Amoaning, the Executive Secretary of the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, has said homosexual unions were unlawful and it is a criminal offense to engage in the act.

He said the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights in itself did not state any rights for homosexuals and emphasized that the Ghanaian constitution was also explicitly clear in respect to the Human Rights provisions.

He said this during one of its regional consultative meetings with traditional councils to draw attention to the growing threat of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-sexual (LGBT) right activism in the country.

The coalition is a mix of Christian and Para Christian bodies, Muslim society and other entities aimed at ensuring the preservation of sexual and family values.

The meeting, which was attended by the clergy, Muslim leaders, school chaplains, opinion leaders and members of the Oguaa traditional council, was jointly organised by Emmanuel University and the National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values.

It was on the theme: “Uniting to combat the scourge of Homosexual (LGBT RIGHTS) Activism in Ghana, the Tripartite Strategy”.

Mr Foh-Amoaning, who is also a senior law lecturer at the Ghana school of Law, said homosexuality was a human weakness and legalizing it would mean elevating what was clearly a human wrong into human rights.

He said it cannot not be legally tenable simply because someone has a propensity to a certain sexual orientation for that orientation to be elevated into human rights and be protected by the law.

The law lecturer questioned why people were being prosecuted for engaging in sodomy, which is a similar sexual orientation, but homosexuals were not, saying so far as sodomy remained an offense, so should homosexuality.

He pledged the coalition's commitment to ensure that persons vying for any political office clearly state their position on the issue of homosexuality in this year’s general elections.

“We cannot trust our politicians on all other issues because there have been several matters where this country has been sold off by our politicians, but on this issue of homosexuality, we would not allow our politicians to sell us off”, he said.

Mr Foh-Amoaning said the attempt by the western world to force African countries to accept homosexuality was a form of neocolonialism aimed at enslaving the mindset of black people and challenged African leaders not to succumb to this undue pressure.

“Why is polygamy a criminal offence in the United States, but it is normal in Ghana, so what right has Obama got to tell us that if we criminalize homosexuality, we are against human rights. Is he not against human rights when he made polygamy a criminal offence in the US?”

He said there is no scientific, theological and legal or any psychiatric basis for homosexuality and for that matter Africa and the rest of the world must be courageous enough to speak against it.

He said the coalition believes that homosexuality is a human weakness and therefore would seek to provide a comprehensive solution to the problem and not victimize assault and kill those who engaged in it as it was being propagated by some people.