The Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, Dr. Akwasi Osei has dissented from the claim by some persons that homosexual activities are normal.

Appearing before the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, Dr. Akwasi Osei said, in Ghana, a minute percentage of homosexuals are born as such.

“Many people learn homosexuality as a habit and only a few are born with the homosexual tendency so the argument that they are born with it is only a few. 6.7 per cent are born with it and 93 per cent are not born with it so any argument that they are born with it and it is normal is false,” he argued.

The act, he said constitutes mental illness by scientific definition. This, he explained is a departure from normality and causes severe and persistent distress or pain to society and victims of homosexual conduct.

 Dr. Osei therefore described the claims about homosexual activities being normal are specious.

“An NGO did a study and estimated that there are about 650,000 people in Ghana with homosexual tendency and that there are 350,000 in Accra, 250,000 in Takoradi and 50,000 elsewhere. If you bring all these you get about 0.02 per cent of the Ghanaian population. How can you say that 0.02 per cent is a common phenomenon and therefore is normal?

There is a scientific way of determining what is normal and abnormal. It is not left to people’s whims and caprices to determine what is normal and abnormal. If you have a population and one or two out of 30 million or so, it is the frequency that determines whether you call it normal or abnormal. It is not whether you were born with it or not,” he said.

He further noted that out of the 0.02 per cent of homosexuals in Ghana, 93 per cent of them learnt the act through peer pressure, economic reasons, curiosity and aversion for the opposite sex as a result of rape and defilement.

Over 140 memos have been presented to the Committee so far regarding the Bill.

The Bill, if passed in its current state, will criminalise Lesbianism, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and their related activities.

A group opposing the passage of the Bill, Concerned Ghanaian Citizens said the Bill will violate human rights and promote hate against persons belonging to the LGBTQ+ communities.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has called for the swift passage of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, into law.

Other groups that have appeared before the Committee included the Human Rights Coalition, Amnesty International and Advocates for Christ.