Mr Kwame Akuffo, a private legal practitioner, has disagreed with claims that the laws of the country were silent on lesbianism but banned homosexuality. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ms Gertrude Aikins had indicated that persons caught engaging in homosexual activities could be liable for prosecution but added that the law was silent on sexual engagements between two females. But Mr Akufo in an interview with Peace FM Wednesday, quoted Section 104 (1)(b) of the Criminal Code which saying whosoever has an unnatural carnal knowledge of any person of 16 years or over with his consent is guilty of a misdemeanour, while the same code, with reference to sodomy, says whoever has unnatural carnal knowledge of any person of age 16 or over without his consent shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years and not more than twenty-five years. Consistent with the above, Mr Akufo maintained that the law did not specify which gender was liable for prosecution but that anybody who engaged in unnatural canal knowledge – whether male or female - faulted the law. He discounted arguments that people have rights and that if they practised such acts in the privacy of their homes it should not affect others, arguing that when someone slept with an animal the person was charged with unnatural canal knowledge and prosecuted because by their single act of indiscretion, such persons could spread an incurable disease contracted from the animal to other members of the community. Therefore, according to the lawyer, the law was much concerned about the effects of a person’s act on the larger society and not only the individuals. On recent calls for a straightforward law accepting or banning the activities of homosexuals and lesbians, Mr Akuffo noted that whatever laws the nation accepted had to be fashioned with the spirit of the society in mind. The law must ensure social cohesion, he maintained, adding that if we accept homosexuality, it will destroy the fabric of our society and disintegrate societal cohesion. He maintained that he did not think the society accepts that people should sleep with others of their own gender, insisting that “It is customarily not acceptable, it will not harmonise the society.“ Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana