Ghanaian socialite and singer Efia Odo has disclosed that she is in full support of the LGBTQI community in Ghana but thinks their activities shouldn’t be legalised.
The LGBTQI community in Ghana have come under pressure after lawmakers doubled down on legislating laws that ban their activities in the country.
Early this week, Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, said he will rather die than legalise homosexuality rights in Ghana.
“I will prefer to join my Maker than to live,” Alban Bagbin said during a presser this week. “That is me. I am a Catholic and pro-life. I will not do anything that will end the world because God says the world is eternal. Until He returns we cannot do that to end the world.”
He added: “They have the repercussions in their country, and I can tell you that in the next 50 years, there will be no indigenous European in the world.”
Even though many Ghanaians are against the LGBTQI community, there has been overwhelming support for the gay community from influential Ghanaians and celebrities.
Now, Efia Odo has also come out to defend them, saying she loves and supports them because they are also humans and that they should be allowed to live their lives.
“Has the smoking of weed been legalised? Has adultery been legalised? Has the committing of crime been legalised? ” she quizzed Nana Romeo on Accra FM this week. “But people still do it; people still smoke.”
“I think the problem that we have is the legalisation of it. People can do whatever they want; live their lives how they want. But the problem that most of us find is the legalisation of it.”
She said while it’s okay for everyone to live their lives and do what pleases them, it will be wrong for the country to legalise LGBTQI activities.
“I don’t think it should be legalised. But it doesn’t mean that people who are part of the LGBTQI community are not allowed to live their lives the way they want,” she opined.
She continued: “At the end of the day, we all commit sin. If you think someone being gay is bad, then stealing, lying, gossiping, and fornicating is also bad. We live in a religious county and we believe that we have morals. We live by the Bible but a lot of people don’t follow the rules in the Bible.”
“For me, I don’t care how anyone live their lives but we don’t need to legalise certain things. Because if we legalise LGBTQI, we have to legalise everything else. And that’s what a lot of people have problems with. Do what you want, but we don’t need to legalise it,” she concluded.
A popular Canada-based Ghanaian LGBTQI activist Charlie Dior agreed and disagreed with Efia Odo, saying crime has nothing to do with the activities of the LGBTQI community. He also pointed out some paradoxes in her statement.
“Love you my sis and I agree with most of what she said but I have to disagree with her on certain parts,” he wrote on Instagram. “What does doing a crime have to do with sexuality?”
“A crime is an intent to cause harm to someone else or to yourself, how does someone’s sexual act cause harm to the next person? Legalization means protection for the LGBTQ community.”
“You can’t say you love and support the community and then say you’re not for legalization. If it’s not legalised then it’s illegal and if it’s illegal and you do it then it’s a crime. you can’t have it both ways,” he added.
