Anti-LGBT: Most Rev. Gyamfi says the president should support what the people want
Genevieve Partington, Country Director for Amnesty International Ghana, claims that if the anti-LGBT bill is passed, the number of hate crimes will rise.
She claims that if the bill is passed, it will give the nation’s attacks, harassment, and persecution of LGBT people legal standing.
Appearing on JoyNews’ PM Express, she said that because of the anti-gay bill, those who are thought to be gay or lesbian might easily become the target of mob justice.
This encourages hate crimes. Let me give you an example: If someone thinks you’re viewed as being homosexual or lesbian, let’s say I’m in a hotel room with another woman and someone calls and thinks I’m a lesbian, that can encourage hate crimes, you know.
She continued, “Because what if I’m not, and just as when we find robbers in Ghana, we conduct instant justice and mob action, this might also promote mob action towards this people so this is one thing I feel is not nice.
She added that several provisions of the measure violate children’s rights to their bodies’ autonomy by requiring so-called remedial medical treatments for intersex children.
She stated that encouraging such operations on children could have long-term, detrimental impacts on the children.
According to medical research, it occasionally occurs that as a child grows, sometimes the testosterone levels are higher and then maybe the parents wanted a girl so they realigned the child’s gender to a girl, but then maybe they [the child] realises that “no, I feel more like a boy,” she said. “I think that’s a violation of children’s rights because basically you’re allowing the parents to decide which sex they want to be,” she said.
Ms. Partington emphasized that it was a risky addition to the measure to include conversion treatment.
She outlined how conversion therapy has been shown to be ineffective in altering a person’s sexual orientation and that its use is intrusive and upsetting to the alleged patient.
“Conversion treatment is an extremely risky procedure. Conversion therapy involves altering a person’s sexual orientation through the use of extremely evasive techniques like brain surgery, hormonal castration, painful treatments like electric shocks, nausea-inducing medications, and hypnosis, all of which are not supported by any medical research, according to the expert.
According to Amnesty International, the Anti-LGBT bill is oppressive and ought to be repealed.