President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, says it is impossible for policymakers to achieve a perfect society by just passing laws.
He casts doubt on the passage of a legislation to curb the practice of homosexuality, calling for extensive engagement on the anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
In an interview on the Big Issue on Citi TV, he observed that the practice of homosexuality has been in existence since time immemorial and emphasized that no country has been able to stop it.
Mr. Cudjoe advised MPs to be cautious in their quest to deal with a matter that rarely occurs in the open.
“There’s nothing like a perfect society, we can’t have a perfect society. Some of these acts that are dastardly, in my opinion, are not necessarily new, because they are quite ancient with us. Sometimes I worry that legislation alone being pursued as the only avenue to, as it were, curb it could achieve the results. Don’t forget these things happen quite often, not necessarily in the open, they happen behind closed doors. I still think that there should be some space for discussion. You can only identify the challenges only when you have a fair view which you can identify some of these things the proponents call errant or unnatural behaviour.”
“So we have to be cautious in terms of trying to basically look out for the other risk factors that may be associated with this act of which the larger population is at higher risk. It’s not a perfect society, let’s not pretend that we can achieve a perfect society by passing laws. It never happens anywhere, it never happened. It will be difficult to criminalize the intent of people’s sexual behaviours. So we should be cautious in trying to deal with a matter that for much of its occurrence, we don’t see. If a man acts coquettishly towards a man, then you will ask why is the man trying to impress on another man in a flirtatious manner. You cannot legislate a perfect society, it will never really happen,” he told host Selorm Adonoo.
