The “Big 18” and the Human Rights Coalition has commended Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson on his comments on LGBT.

Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson has called on Ghana’s Parliament not to criminalize homosexuality and LGBT in the country.

Speaking in an interview on the BBC’s HARDtalk, Cardinal Turkson further stated that the Ghanaian people should be helped to understand the issue better.

“My position has simply been this, that LGBT, gay people may not be criminalised, because they’ve committed no crime, but neither should this position also become something to be imposed on cultures, which are not yet ready to accept stuffs like that,” he added.

In a statement dated December 4, 2024, the group said the comment by Cardinal Turkson is a welcoming news and will save Ghana from unnecessary economic sanctions.

“The “Big 18” and the Human Rights Coalition welcome the recent statement made by Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, during an interview on BBC’s HardTalk programme aired on Tuesday November 28, 2023, and the concurring statement made by the Deputy Majority Leader, Honorable Alex Afenyo-Markin, that sexual minorities should not be criminalized nor imprisoned, as proposed in the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2021 (the “Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill”), because “they have committed no crime.”

“It is the hope of the “Big 18” and the Human Rights Coalition that the endorsement of a core principle of our position by a high personage as Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, which has evoked similar sentiments from some clergy and Members of Parliament, would guide Parliament in reconsidering the enactment of such a harmful bill that would not only violate several provisions of the 1992 Constitution but also unnecessarily open up Ghana to economic sanctions from international organizations and governments,” the group stated.