Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations Samuel Nartey George has broken his public silence on the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, insisting his position on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) issues remains unchanged and warning that he and others will agitate if President John Dramani Mahama declines to sign the bill once Parliament passes it.
Speaking to The 1957 News on the sidelines of a press conference on Friday, April 10, the Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament said his recent silence had been misread as a change of position, and attributed the quiet to what he described as widespread misinformation surrounding his stance. He noted that he had re-sponsored the bill in Parliament as a private member’s legislation, reaffirming that his convictions have not softened since his appointment as a government minister.
George expressed full confidence that the President will assent to the bill once the legislative process is complete. He explained that no bill currently sits before the President for signature, as the legislation is still going through parliamentary processes. The Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee is expected to review it before it returns to the full House for clause-by-clause consideration. Parliament formally received the reintroduced bill on February 17, 2026, and Speaker Alban Bagbin had earlier directed the Business Committee to schedule it for consideration after a Financial Impact Analysis found it imposes no burden on the Consolidated Fund.
The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference entered the debate sharply on the same day with a pastoral and public statement signed by its President, Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi of Sunyani, rebuking both the President and the Minister for Government Communications over characterisations of the LGBTQ+ debate as inconsequential. The Bishops said the statements risk diminishing issues that many Ghanaians regard as central to the country’s moral and cultural identity, and called on President Mahama to honour his earlier commitment to assent to the legislation if Parliament passes it constitutionally.
The Bishops’ statement called on all stakeholders including the executive, the legislature, religious leaders, traditional authorities, and civil society to engage with intellectual seriousness, mutual respect, and moral clarity, warning that no enduring moral question can be dismissed without cost.
The statement was directed in part at Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who earlier described the debate as a waste of time and questioned its relevance against the daily economic pressures facing ordinary Ghanaians. Kwakye Ofosu argued that when citizens wake up in the morning, their focus is on earning a living, not on legislation of this nature, and said the issue does not rank among the top concerns of most people.
The debate has been reignited by President Mahama’s remarks at the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia, where he described the bill as important but said it is not among the most pressing national concerns. The President has stated that while he supports the legislation in principle, his preference was for it to be introduced as a government bill rather than a private members’ bill. His comments prompted pushback from religious groups and sections of the public who argued the government was sending mixed signals.
The bill, which lapsed with the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the 2024 elections after passing its first iteration in February 2024, was reintroduced by a group of ten legislators in March 2025. Its passage and presidential assent remain among the most watched political questions in Ghana.
