President John Dramani Mahama has suggested a government-sponsored LGBTQ+ bill, as opposed to one led by private members.

According to him, making the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which aims to criminalise homosexual practices and impose strict laws, a government-sponsored initiative would allow the country's cultural values to be integrated into various curricula taught to students.

He explained that this approach would remove the need for a separate bill aimed at enforcing family values in the country to be legislated.

Speaking to a delegation of Catholic bishops from the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference during a courtesy call on January 14, 2025, Mahama said, “I think it should not be a Private Member’s Bill, but a government-sponsored one.

“If we were teaching our values in schools, we wouldn’t need to pass a bill to enforce our family values, and that is why I think more than even the family values bill, is us agreeing on a curriculum that inculcates these values into our children as they are growing up, so that we don’t need to legislate it,” he said.

The president, expressing his commitment, called for broader consultations and renewed discussions among stakeholders to reach a consensus on the way forward.

“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do, but I think we should have a conversation on it again so that all of us, if we decide to move on the way forward, we move forward with a consensus,” he added.

President Mahama highlighted the challenges encountered by the initial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which was introduced as a Private Member's Bill.

Reflecting on the legislative obstacles of the previous bill, he explained that it did not reach the president's desk for assent due to legal and procedural issues.

“But as far as I know, the bill did not get to the president. And so, the convention is that all bills that are not ascended to before the expiration of the life of Parliaments expire. And so, that bill effectively is dead, it has expired,” he stated.

MAG/AE