The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was left puzzled during the consideration of the draft Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values bill (anti-LGBTQ+ bill) on Tuesday, December 12, 2023.
The Members of Parliament (MPs) were debating an amendment of a clause of the anti-gay bill that seeks to ban people from marrying objects and animals in Ghana.
Speaker Bagbin, who was lost for words, asked how one can be married to an object.
“How do you marry an object… they do!. Is marriage redefined or what,” he quizzed.
The Member of Parliament (MP)for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, one of the sponsors of the bill, tried to explain to the speaker why the amendment was needed.
He told the speaker that there are a lot of examples throughout the world of people marrying objects and animals.
“Right Honourable Speaker to support the amendment there is actually a man who is married to his 1978 Beetle and he is a subject of a BBC interview. He engages in intercourse with his 1978 Volkswagen Beetle and reaches an orgasm and it is a legal marriage.
“… there are people who would marry statues and trees. So, Mr Speaker, this is a real and present danger that we are talking about. So, objects are becoming things that people are getting married to and so if we are restricting marriage to persons of same sex or animals it is important that we add objects as well,” he said.
The MP added, “Let me even add that right now we have sex toys, sex dolls, these dolls are inanimate objects but people buy these dolls, they marry the dolls and have sex with them, even robots”.
The Speaker of Parliament was still puzzled even after Sam George’s explanation.
He found it difficult as to how people can actually be married to animals and objects.
Sam George reiterated that it is something happening and so the anti-gay bill must take that into consideration.
He added that laws that are being enacted should also make such marriages that are conducted outside Ghana null and void when they are brought into the country.
Watch the Bagbin’s reaction and Sam George’s comments in the videos below: