Ghana parliament might prohibit people from marrying their cars
Absurdities and repression abound in debate over wide-ranging anti-LGBTQ bill
The parliament of Ghana has begun debate on provisions of the bill formerly known as “the worst anti-LGBTQ bill ever”.
The debate has ranged through a variety of absurd fictions, including humans marrying cars and household appliances, which some members of parliament want to outlaw.
Among many other provisions, the bill, as originally proposed, would increase to as many as five years Ghana’s current law providing up to a three-year sentence for same-sex intimacy. It would also criminalize gender reassignment surgery, crossdressing, oral sex, anal sex, sex toys, same-sex weddings, advocacy of LGBTQ rights and “public show of amorous relations” between people of the same sex. Most of those are contained in Clause 6 of the bill.
The LGBTQ rights group Rightify Ghana reported on the latest parliamentary debates, which focused on Clause 6:
MPs didn’t agree on punishment for same-sex intercourse. A proposed amendment would reduce the bill’s five-year maximum punishment back to the current law’s level — a maximum of three years — with no minimum. Some MPs proposed 3 or 6 months as a minimum.
The discussions strayed when anti-LGBT legislator “Sam George and others keep citing foreign examples to defend provisions in Clause 6 seeking to prohibit marriage between persons and animals or objects,” Rightify Ghana stated.
George “claims a man married a car and another one in Indonesia married his rice cooker,” which is not only ridiculous but also off topic — there’s no language about such imaginary relationships in the bill.
The up to three years’ imprisonment proposed under Clause 6 would prohibit:
- Same-sex sexual activities
- Same-sex marriage
- Use of sex toys, sex dolls (objects)
- Identifying as LGBTQ+ or as an LGBTQ+ ally
- Gender-affirming surgeries
The clause also suggests that LGBT people marry animals and would ban it.
