GPCC Re-Affirms its support for the “Proper Human Sexual Rights & Ghanaian Family Values” Bill

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) is the largest ecumenical council in Ghana with over 260 registered and active Pentecostal and Charismatic churches and para-church organizations across the country. Conservative estimates put the congregational members of our churches in the region of 8 to 10 million. The GPCC as an ecumenical council therefore represents a sizeable constituent of the Ghanaian population and electorate.
The GPCC has observed with keen interest recent happenings and deliberations in Ghana’s House of Parliament towards the passage of the “Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values” Bill. The GPCC wishes to state in no uncertain terms its full support for the “Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021”, which is currently going through the consideration stage in Parliament and is expected to passage into law. As a Council, we stand with the entire membership of the “Coalition for the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values”, the private sponsors/promoters of the Bill in Parliament, and all others who in diverse ways are lending their support to the passage of this all-important Bill.

Earlier in 2021 played key roles as a member of the Coalition for The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values in supporting the promoters of the Bill and after our submission of Memoranda in support of the Bill, the GPCC through this Press Release wishes to add its voice to proponents of the Bill by reiterating our earlier position to the effect that:

1. To the best of our knowledge and understanding, the “Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values” Bill articulates and reflects the sexual and family values of the entirety of Ghanaian society. The Bill seeks to uphold our collective sexual and family values system and to protect our communities and population from being pillaged by unacceptable influences from a small section of people which will disrupt our time-proven family and social system. We wish to reiterate the fact that, as has been severally stated by the Honorable Sam Nartey George, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram and his other colleagues on both sides of the House of Parliament, the Bill is not seeking to discriminate,
   harm, and/or create hatred for any individual or group of people. The Bill seeks to protect our time-tested family and social sexual value system by proscribing any act or intentions aimed at advocating, promoting, soliciting, and/or advertising LGBTQIA+ values and practices.
2. 
   While our current laws in the narrower sense (particularly, The Criminal Offences Act 1960, (Act 29) under section 104) criminalize some aspects of LGBTQIA+ activities, the current Bill under consideration seeks to holistically address all identified grey areas and ambiguities in this area. Additionally, our collective traditional cultural values, as well as our various religious faiths (Christian, Islamic, Traditional Religion) and for that matter our revered religious books consider these acts as abominable and must not be given any new names of legitimacy.
3. 
   The GPCC together with our sister ecumenical councils and religious bodies that constitute the Coalition, will continue to advocate for and show love, compassion, and fellow feeling towards LGBTQIA+ persons, but will not condone these unacceptable acts. The ecumenical councils and the Coalition approach this process to provide support for those willing to come out of these deviant social disorders.
4. 
   The GPCC is committed to the protection of the rights of every Ghanaian including people associated with the LGBTQIA+ and will ensure that they are protected from intimidation, discrimination, and violence. As already provided for in the Bill, once it is passed into law, the Council, working through the Church and other sister ecumenical bodies would support every effort that aims at providing treatment, counseling, and psycho-social and spiritual support to help those willing to come out of these acts.
5. 
   The GPCC is very aware of the economic and financial threats being used to intimidate the Ghanaian society and particularly some of our Parliamentarians to prevent the passage of the Bill. We find that approach, to say the least, to be unacceptable and shameful. We call on all Ghanaians to stand firm for our collective traditional and religious values and not to yield to selling our birth-right, as Esau (the firstborn of Isaac) did and regretted for the rest of his life (Genesis 25:30-34; Hebrews 12:16-17).
6. 
   While congratulating the Members of Parliament (MPs) promoting the passage of the Bill into law for their resilience and acts of courage amid intimidations and acts of harassment from some foreign and local entities, we wish to call on all Parliamentarians to work through consensus to ensure that this Bill is unanimously passed into law without any further delays. The GPCC is willing to have an audience with any interested party, individual, and/or group of Parliamentarians to deliberate further to explain our position and also hear their concerns with the view of promoting understanding.
7. 
   Furthermore, we wish to remind our Honorable Parliamentarians that they do not represent themselves in the House of Parliament. They are in Parliament as the people’s representatives. Their choices and decisions must therefore reflect the preferences of their constituencies and not the wishes and desires of themselves or other foreign entities. We wish to assure and state unequivocally that the entire House of Parliament has our moral and spiritual support as it goes through the last stages of fine-tuning the Bill for passage into Law.

8.
The GPCC particularly commends the Speaker of Parliament, the Right Honorable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin for his resolute stance, and calls on all and sundry to openly and expressly lend their support to the process. We kindly implore Parliament to work together in the interest of the sovereign will of the people of Ghana and endeavor to pass the Bill before it rises on the 22nd of December 2023. We need to urgently and as a matter of responsibility protect our society and children in particular from the continuous attempt to covertly destroy our long-tested, cherished, and priceless family values that must be handed over to the next generation without any adulteration.
God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.

Apostle Eric Nyamekye
(PRESIDENT)
On behalf of the National Executive Council (NEC)