It’s high time Ghana recognized LGBTQ and gay rights – Inusah Fuseini

Lawyer and politician, Honourable Inusah Fuseini, who’s a former member of parliament on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said that it’s high time Ghana recognised the rights of the LGBT community.

In an interview on OKAY FM, Mr Inusah said that as a Muslim, his religion is against their acts, so he cannot be seen practising that.

But as a lawyer, ‘new rights’ are emerging on a daily basis, hence, the gays and lesbians must be respected.

“As a Muslim, I cannot be seen to be practising it but that is me as a Muslim, but as a lawyer, new rights are emerging and it is time that we recognize the existence of those new rights,” he said.

“As a Muslim, I cannot support the activities of the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Queer Intersex but if you ask me as a lawyer, I think that we are fighting a losing battle. If we want to create a right-based society, it means that if someone has the right to do something, you cannot prevent that person from doing it,” he added.

“If you prevent the person, then you are not creating an open society. Even in our criminal code which we borrowed from our colonial masters, we have unnatural canal knowledge introduced by the British, but now that law is no longer in Britain, new ones were born. They said that that law violates some rights,” he stressed.

Mr Inusah added that we can’t pretend LGBT and others don’t happen in our various communities, just that we don’t speak about them.

“Within the cultural context, many things happen. Let me say that homosexuality within our homes, it happens but it happens underground because the cultural set up does not accept or tolerate and considers homosexuality an abominable,” he indicated.

“But as times go on, some cultural practices will give way. Once upon a time, people could not smoke wee in the whole world over but today we have found a way to make wee medicinal . . . in Ghana, Akpeteshie used to be a banned substance initially but as time went on, the people accepted it. As new knowledge begins to emerge people will begin to understand,” he argued.