{"id":8349,"date":"2024-10-02T09:30:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T09:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8349"},"modified":"2024-10-02T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T09:30:45","slug":"proponents-of-anti-gay-bill-plan-oct-8-walk-to-demand-supreme-court-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=8349","title":{"rendered":"Proponents of anti-gay bill plan Oct. 8 walk to demand Supreme Court action."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frustration with the delay in determining the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, commonly known as the Anti-Gay Bill, has prompted its sponsors to organise a peaceful walk to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sponsors, led by vocal advocate and MP, Sam Nartey George, plan to submit a petition to both the Attorney General and Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo, urging the Court to set a hearing date for the final ruling on the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which was passed by Parliament on February 28, 2024, seeks to criminalize LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the bill has since faced delays in judicial proceedings, especially after a Supreme Court ruling on July 17, 2024, decided to postpone judgments on anti-gay cases until related legal issues are resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This delay has sparked concern among the bill&#8217;s supporters, who are now calling for expedited action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The peaceful protest will begin at Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra and will include participation from various religious groups and stakeholders, such as the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council and the Office of the National Chief Imam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Organizers initially planned the protest two months ago but postponed it after the Court&#8217;s ruling, hoping for progress in the legal proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview, Samuel Nartey George expressed his frustration with the ongoing delays, calling for immediate action from the judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-37e308048569c1a5e86d80b19bb65336 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sAAtbrE4fuU?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He criticised the Supreme Court for stalling the bill&#8217;s progress and failing to provide a clear timetable for hearing the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBasically what the Supreme Court has done is stage judgments. The judiciary today is stopping the legislature from doing a constitutional mandate,\u201d Sam George said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow you say you want to hear the main case, they haven\u2019t said anything to us, they haven\u2019t given us a timetable. Are you hearing it now, one month or two years? Nobody knows what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He further pointed out that the Supreme Court has, in the past, heard cases during vacation periods, emphasising the inconsistency of delaying such a critical national issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sam George argued that it is in the country&#8217;s best interest to resolve the matter swiftly, given the intense national debate around LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is a major national issue. We need to have a final determination on the matter, and they should act expeditiously. It\u2019s not a matter the Supreme Court can choose and be lackadaisical or drag its feet. We want to see some action,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The peaceful march, scheduled for October 8, 2024, aims to pressure the Court into setting a hearing date and moving the process forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Organizers have urged participants to avoid wearing political party colours, stating that the march is not politically motivated but rather a call for action on a critical national issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frustration with the delay in determining the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, commonly known as the Anti-Gay Bill, has prompted its sponsors to organise a peaceful walk to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. The sponsors, led by vocal advocate and MP, Sam Nartey George, plan to submit a petition to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2732,1812],"class_list":["post-8349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-anti-gay-bill-2","tag-supreme-court-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8351,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8349\/revisions\/8351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}