The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George has disclosed that some groups in the United States of America tried to influence him to abolish the anti-LGBTQI bill.
He said they offered him monetary incentives in order for him to drop the Private Members’ Bill intended to regulate LGBTQI activities in Ghana.
In an interview on Accra based Citi TV, the NDC lawmaker said he has been offered money that “I could have been sorted for life” by different groups in the US to back down on his anti-LGBTQ campaign but he has remained resolute.
“On this LGBTQ thing, if it was about making quick money, I could have been sorted out for life. Offers were made. I can show you messages from groups in San Francisco inviting me and saying let’s have a conversation that I should drop the bill. If that was what it was about for me, I could have gotten it sorted out, but you must have principles,” he said.
Sam George said his involvement in the process to get an anti-LGBTQ legislation in Ghana has come with several ramifications including being blacklisted from making currency exchanges outside Ghana which stems from allegations of money laundering levelled against him by persons who are unhappy about his campaign.
“The price I have paid is enormous. I know I may have been put on some international watch lists. You travel, and you get to an international airport and all kinds of funny questions are asked of you. They say I do money laundering and I cannot even change $10 anywhere in the world because of accusations that I’m being funded by some ghost group in the US. I am not being funded. I fund my things from my own pocket,” he added.
Sam George is part of eight members of parliament that have jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalization of LGBTQI+ activities in the country.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 will see culprits face a jail term of up to ten years depending on the crime, if passed in its current state.
Individuals of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
