LEADING FIGURE IN GHANA BACKS GAY RIGHTS

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Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah

Leading Ghanaian politician and businessman Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah has expressed his support for gay and lesbian equality and said that he will financially back LGBT rights groups, reports Ghana Web.

In an interview with Ultimate Radio, Amoafo-Yeboah argued that witch-hunts against gay people were senseless. He said that homosexuality was between consenting adults and took place in the privacy of people’s bedrooms.

The one-time presidential candidate also urged listeners to stop using culture and tradition as an excuse to harm homosexuals and to rather focus their energy on issues such as crime and corruption.

Writing on Facebook on Monday, he also stated: “I support gay rights! I think every Ghanaian and indeed every human being deserves protection of their human rights.

“I have had gay friends, human beings, die from AIDS in the 80’s because they were afraid to come out and seek medical help for fear of persecution.

“We are all God’s children and we all deserve to be loved. I will disagree with any religious leader or indeed anybody who says homosexuals deserve to be cast out of society,” said Amoafo-Yeboah.

“Any organisation that wants to fight for gay rights will have my support, financially and otherwise,” he added.

Amoafo-Yeboah, who studied electrical engineering at San Francisco State University in the US, is currently Chairman of i-TEL Limited as well as Chairman of Teligent Wireless Limited. He was an independent presidential candidate in the 2008 elections.

Amoafo-Yeboah’s stance comes in the wake of recent comments by Nana Oye Lithur, Ghana’s newly appointed Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, made after her nomination to the post. 

She told the Appointments Committee in parliament that while she had never called for the legalisation of homosexuality, she firmly believes that “the rights of everybody, including homosexuals should be protected”.

Under Ghanaian criminal law, same-sex sexual activity is illegal, with penalties of up to three years in prison.

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