Country Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Genevieve Partington, says the Anti-LGBT bill when passed will increase the spate of hate crimes in the country.
According to her, the bill’s passage will legitimise the attack, harassment and persecution of LGBT people in the country.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, she noted that persons perceived to be gay or lesbian could easily fall victim to mob justice as a result of the anti-gay bill.
“It promotes hate crime. Let me give you an example, if people are perceived to be lesbian or gay, let’s just say me, I’m in a hotel room with another lady and someone decides to call and suspect that I am a lesbian, you know, it can promote hate crime.
“Because what if I am not and just as we catch thieves in Ghana and we do instant justice and mob action, this can also increase mob action towards this community so this is one thing I feel is not good,” she explained.
She further said portions of the bill also infringe on the body autonomy rights of children through the introduction of so-called corrective medical procedures for children who are intersex.
She noted that such procedures on children could have serious harmful effects on the children in the future and should not be encouraged.
“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 and from medical research sometimes what happens is that as the child grows, sometimes maybe the testosterone levels are higher and then maybe the parents wanted a girl so realigned the child’s gender to a girl and then they [the child] realises that ‘no, I feel more like a boy,’” she said.
Ms. Partington also stressed that the inclusion of conversion therapy in the bill was a dangerous addition.
She explained that conversion therapy has proven not to be effective in changing the sexual orientation of people and its practice is invasive and aversive towards the supposed patient.
“Conversion therapy is a very dangerous practice. Conversion therapy entails changing an individual’s sexual orientation using very evasive methods like brain surgery, hormonal castration, aversive treatments like electric shocks, nausea inducing drugs, hypnosis, and these are all non-evidence based medical procedures,” she said.
Amnesty International maintains that the Anti-LGBT bill is draconian and must be gotten rid of.
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