One of the sponsors of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, Samuel Nartey George has said that the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin did not block the third reading of the bill.
This comes after the Deputy Majority Leader objected to the provision that mandates imprisonment for individuals engaged in LGBTQ+ activities.
During the bill’s third reading in Parliament on Thursday, February 15, Afenyo-Markin raised concerns about the proposed custodial sentences.
He argued that incarceration would not address the behavioral aspects of LGBTQ+ issues and suggested that alternative approaches, such as community service or fines, should be considered instead.
READ ALSO: Afenyo-Markin Blocks LGBTQ+ Bill Over Custodial Sentencing Concerns
Earlier reports had suggested that but for the intervention of the Deputy Majority Leader, the controversial bill would have been passed.
However, Sam George insists that Afenyo-Markin did not ‘arrest the third reading’ of the bill.
“Afenyo Markin did not arrest the third reading. He would have been defeated with ease on the floor,” he argued on Joy FM.
He clarified that he and another sponsor, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah intended to do a second consideration of the bill.
“We, as sponsors have about 10 amendments we want to make to the draft the persons have brought. For example, if you look at the head notes of what the draft person has brought, we agreed at the House to delete Ghanaian. So, the bill will not read Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values; it will read the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill.
“We decided to delete ‘proper and Ghanaian.’ They did that but in some of the clauses you still see Ghanaian repeat itself there so we needed to clean those things up so we were going to do a second consideration.”
“That is the reason why my co-sponsor Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah responded by seconding the motion. So, Afenyo did not have what it took to arrest the bill,” he said.