Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s position for the non-criminalization of homosexuals.
“The church says that by the culture of Africans, we are against same-sex marriage but it is also against criminalizing somebody who has that sexual orientation. I am a catholic, I don’t hold a contrary view to what the Catholic church is saying,” the MP said.
He stressed “The Catholic Church is saying it will be wrong to criminalize somebody’s sexual orientation and so be it. Personally, I don’t think that somebody claiming to be a lesbian or gay should go to jail. by virtue of that.”
Personally, Afenyo-Markin said, he does not think that somebody claiming to be a lesbian or gay should go to jail by virtue of that.
The Efutu MP was speaking in an interview with TV3’s parliamentary reporter Komla Kluste on in Parliament yesterday, where he intimated that “I am a Catholic and the position of the Catholic church is very clear, the law is very and I don’t think that what the church has said I should hold a contrary view to it.”
His comments come after the chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences, Cardinal Peter Turkson said that there is no need to criminalise homosexuality.
He said persons with gay and lesbian tendencies have committed no crime.
“LGBT people may not be criminalized because they’ve committed no crime. To criminalise anybody, you need to identify the crime,” he said.
Cardinal Peter Turkson said this during an interview on BBC Hardtalk programme on November 27, 2023.
He explained what has resulted in efforts to enact laws against homosexual activities “what caused all of this is attempt to link some foreign donations and grants to certain positions… in the name of freedom, in the name of respect for rights”.
He therefore stated that, “Neither should this position become an imposition on cultures which are not yet ready to accept stuff like that.”
The interview was held against the background that Ghana‘s Parliament is currently considering the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 that if passed, will prohibit acts of homosexuality.
The proponents want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalised in the country.
Cardinal Turkson suggested that “It’s time to begin education, to help people understand what this reality, this phenomenon is. We need a lot of education to get people to… make a distinction between what is crime and what is not crime.”
The cleric also said that the LGBTQI phenomenon has been known in Ghana for many years.
According to him, this is found in the Akan expression “Kojo Besia’ or “Obaa barima.”
“In the Akan language, that of mine, there is an expression “men who act like women and women who act like men. If culturally we had expressions… it just means that it’s been known to the Ghanaian society,” he explained.
Read below the transcription of excerpts of the interview on BBC Hardtalk programme on November 27, 2023:
Stephen Sackur: “Let’s start with something which is very current, that is the discussion in the church on key issues of sexuality and gender.”
“Now I refer the beginning of this interview to Pope Francis and the hopes that have been vested in him to show leadership. I will put it to you that on some of these key issues for example, the churches attitude to homosexuality, for example the possibility of giving blessing to gay marriages in church, the attitude to LGBTQ community generally. Pope Francis has sent a confusion, not a clear message.”
Cardinal Turkson: “No, but lately about a week or so ago he came out with a small document just saying clearly what his position on all of these are, that LGBT people can be blessed, they can be admitted to church, and all of that, they can even become God parents of children and people who are being baptised and all of that. So he [Pope] himself has signalled, partly stuffs that used to be left neck below, undecided and all that and come clearly with these…
Stephen Sackur: “So you see him [Pope] as now following a policy which many people regard as, within the Catholic perspective, liberal, doesn’t that put you [Turkson], personally in a very difficult position. Because your own position for example on homosexuality seems quite clear, I have looked at your record over many years, you have been a consistent conservative on these issues.”
Cardinal Turkson: “Those are the expressions again, conservative, progressive, you know, my thing has been this, and I’ll refer you to an interesting episode, a situation I got into responding to an invitation to go speak in Slovenia at one point and then the Bishops were wondering whether to allow it because there was a lot of media agitation.
“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 stuff like that.
Stephen Sackur: “You are Ghanaian, this summer, the Ghanaian Parliament passed, it is called the Appropriate sexual rights and family values at which a tougher regime for gay people clearly criminalises homosexuality in Ghana, up to 10 years in prison for LGBT…
“The Ghanaian Catholic Bishops Conference said that western countries must stop in incessant attempts to impose unacceptable foreign cultural values on us. Are you backing that statement and therefore defending the criminalisation of homosexuality?
Cardinal Turkson: “What I just said to you is, my position is contrary to what has just been passed, to criminalise anybody, if you are able to identify the crime, LGBT cases are not to be criminalised but neither, and this I think is basically what caused all of this in Ghana, the Ghanaian culture has known of people, with some such tendencies, and I say this because there is an expression in the local Akan language that of mine, of men who act like women, and women who act like men, there is an expression for them, which means that this phenomenon is been known, was known in the culture and in the community and all of that.
“But nobody went on to make any policy out of that, now I think what caused all of these was our attempts to link some foreign donations and grants to certain positions, which needed to be imposed in the name of freedom, in the name of respect for rights and stuffs like that. I think that is what led to this thing going to Parliament otherwise for me…”
Stephen Sackur: “The point I get is that there seems to be a real difficulty among senior Catholics in Africa to speak out against this criminalisation of homosexuality and we can look at Ghana, and we can also look at Uganda where they even gone further, and whether the new law in Ghana actually carry the death penalty, what they call “aggravated homosexuality”. And what we also see is that in Uganda the official leadership of the Catholic Church has stayed silent, has not condemned what the Ugandan Parliament has approved of.”
Cardinal Turkson: “It is because what I think the move should be is to be a lot of education about certainly cultural attitudes in some of these regards are very deeply rooted and all of that, and we need a lot of education to get people to separate, make a distinction between what is crime and what is not crime, what is the personal habit and not a personal habit. So something that traditionally maybe referred to as a taboo and all of that it takes time…
Stephen Sackur: “According to the Ghanaian Catholic Bishops Conference it is despicable lifestyles, practices and behaviours. Is it time, and you are one of the single voices from western Africa, is it time to move away from that kind of language.”
Cardinal Turkson: “it is time to begin education to help people understand what this really, this phenomenon is. If culturally we have expressions for this time of things, it just means that it is not completely alien to the Ghanaian society. Not just alien to the Ghanaian society, now that it is coming out what has to and what has to be the response. I think this drastic form that it has taken in Ghana and probably in Uganda is bringing the perception that the west was imposing this, connecting or linking it with donations and grants and all of time, is kind of politicise the thing in such a way that the reaction has also been political in character.”
“But I think, all of this from my point of view, and this is what I think I speak about with a couple of other Bishops is to be able to understand more deeply this phenomenon.”
Cardinal Turkson became the first-ever Ghanaian cardinal in 2003 when he was appointed by Pope John Paul II.
