The American President of Family Watch International joins Christians and Muslims to prevent comprehensive sex education in Ghana

LAST year it was reported that Ghana was considering introducing comprehensive sex education (CSE) to its schools – and this week it was revealed that a key player in a hateful campaign to prevent  African children from receiving sex and relationship lessons is Sharon Slater.

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In reporting on mounting opposition to the the education plan, far-right Christian website, LifeSiteNews, revealed that Slater, above, head of Family Watch International (FWI) had joined the clamour.

FWI, has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It says:

Family Watch International works within the United Nations and with countries around the world to further anti-LGBT and anti-choice stances. Founder Sharon Slater promotes anti-LGBT pseudoscience that includes the falsehood that homosexuality is a mental disorder derived from childhood trauma, and that so-called “conversion therapy” can effectively eliminate same-sex attraction …

Slater, along with a network of other religious fundamentalist organizations active in Africa, spreads her homophobic, anti-choice, abstinence-only agenda by claiming that the U.N,’s push for equal rights for LGBT people and women is part of a Western neo-imperialistic project.

She’s forged close ties over the years with virulently antigay African activists like Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa — an enthusiastic supporter of the country’s “ Kill the Gays ” bill — who have helped her lead campaigns to oppose the decriminalization of homosexuality.

FWI operates StopCSE.org which believes Ghana’s proposed programme constitutes “a war against children.”

Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is one of the greatest assaults on the health and innocence of children. This is because unlike traditional sex education, comprehensive sexuality education is highly explicit and promotes promiscuity and high-risk sexual behaviors to children as healthy and normal.

CSE programmes have an almost obsessive focus on teaching children how to obtain sexual pleasure in various ways. Yet, ironically, comprehensive sexuality education programmes are anything but comprehensive as they fail to teach children about all of the emotional, psychological and physical health risks of promiscuous sexual activity.

StopCSE.or believes that the “ultimate goal” of the programme is:

To change the sexual and gender norms of society, which is why CSE could be more accurately called ‘abortion, promiscuity, and LGBT rights education.’

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One of Staler’s allies is the leader of Ghana’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC)  – Bishop Philip Naameh, 72, above –  who has gone into outrage overdrive, saying of the proposed pragramme:

It is a subtle way to introduce this gay and lesbian thing to our children. We are already struggling to teach morality to our children at all levels of our schools and they want to bring this in. This is unacceptable.

In an interview with a Ghanian radio station, Naameh indicated that he believed Minister of Education Matthew Opoku Prempeh had misled the country’s religious leaders at a meeting in September 2019.

It is a big surprise to me to see that they want to put this in the syllabus and start teaching 5-year-olds about sex.

Naameh called upon parents and politicians to reject the programme:

We want to call on people in high positions and parents to reject it outright because this is not for us.

Other religious leaders in Ghana have similarly voiced their opposition to the sex-ed curriculum. The nation’s Islamic leaders, for example, have been clear in their distaste for the programme.

A representative of the Office of the National Chief Imam (ONCI) – Alhaji Khuzaima Osman – wrote last year:

We appeal to the Ministry (of Education) and the GES (Ghana Education Service) to drop that satanic agenda in the interest of national cohesion and moral promotion.

We would like to state unequivocally that the Islamic community does not accept any form of educating minors and pupils on sexuality. In our estimation, such a move is an attempt to hide behind educational reforms to brainwash the pupils with LGBT agenda.

Ghana Web reported that the CSE – a UNESCO initiative that the organisation wants to see introduced in six African countries – will expose children as young as four to sex. The news source also stated that the Ghana Education Service (GES) had denied that children would be taught anything inappropriate for their age group.

Cassandra Twum Ampofo, a spokeswoman for the GES, told the Ghana News Agency that:

The new Standard Based Curriculum being implemented has nothing to do with LGBT issues, masturbation or explicit display/labeling of intimate body parts.

Ampofo also maintained that the programme will not “throw out” the promotion of sexual abstinence.

The goal of CSE is to equip school children with age and cultural appropriate information to explore and nurture positive values and attitudes towards their sexual and reproductive health and to develop self-esteem, respect for human rights and gender equality.

The curriculum is also to develop self-esteem, respect for human rights and gender equality and help students to make informed decisions about their health, with emphasis on Ghanaian cultural values and norms.

She added:

The GES wishes to assure the general public that no special sessions have been organised or will ever be organised by the GES to train students as advocates for sexual rights, let alone LGBT rights which are culturally, socially, legally, morally and religiously alien to Ghana.

The GES is a state agency and will not under any circumstance implement any programme which goes contrarily to the legal, cultural norms, values and beliefs of the Ghanaian people.

UNESCO says its comprehensive sex education programme:

Is not just about sex. It is about relationships, gender, puberty, consent, and sexual and reproductive health for all young people.

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