A heated debate erupted in Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, after Members of Parliament noticed that the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, popularly known as the anti-LGBTQ bill, was missing from the day’s Order Paper—despite appearing on the previous day’s agenda.
Raising the issue, Hon. Habib Iddrisu expressed concern that both the Property Rights Bill and the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill had mysteriously disappeared. He questioned why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) — which as the Minority in the previous Parliament strongly pushed for the bill — now appeared uninterested in advancing it as the governing party.
He urged Parliament to immediately prepare an addendum to the Order Paper to include the bill for its First Reading, emphasizing that it had already been advertised the day before.
Responding, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, the Majority Leader, clarified that Speaker Alban Bagbin had directed the Clerk of Parliament to remove the bill because it had not yet satisfied required procedural processes. He added that the Speaker wanted the bill’s sponsors to first engage with the Attorney-General, Hon. Dominic Ayine, since the government was also considering introducing a similar bill—as President John Mahama had suggested that the matter should be handled as a government-sponsored initiative.
Further clarifying the situation, First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor said there had been discussions during a pre-sitting meeting explaining that the new rules for private members’ bills require additional scrutiny before they can be approved for inclusion on the Order Paper. He described the omission as an administrative correction made to ensure compliance.
Meanwhile, Minority Leader Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin accused the ruling NDC of double standards, arguing that the party had politicized the bill to win the 2024 elections. He stated that despite global opposition from institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, the NDC had championed the bill while in opposition but now appeared reluctant to pursue it in government.
According to him, “whether they like it or not, they will like the bill. They will pass it.”
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