Gay rights activists fear for their safety as Ghana readies harsh anti-LGBTQ bill
rfi.frGhana's anti-LGBTQ+ bill is undergoing parliamentary review. Its objectives include criminalising same-sex intercourse or public displays of affection, prohibiting the advocacy of LGBTQ+ rights, and banning trans healthcare.“Such actions will put the rights of LGBTQ+ people at risk.
The bill is sensationalist and incredibly absurd for a 21st-century democratic country," Alex Kofi Donkor, who heads the LGBT+ Rights Ghana group, told RFI."The bill proposes to criminalise and imprison people simply for identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, an ally, asexual or pansexual," he said.The bill, which has been under debate since August 2021, claims to protect "Ghanaian family values".But Kofi Donkor argues that "the characterisation of LGBTQ+ existence as deviant, and the labelling of consensual intimacy among LGBTQ+ individuals as such, is rooted in a colonial legacy"."This legacy has been perpetuated through vague morality laws that criminalise certain sexual acts as 'unnatural'," he said.Homosexuality was first criminalised in Ghana under British colonial rule, then again after independence.
Gay sex is already punishable by up to three years' imprisonment.As the new bill approaches the final stage of parliamentary approval, Kofi Donkor shared that he has personally received death threats, and the community centre he established in January 2021 was forcibly closed by the police."If the harsh anti-LGBTQ law currently being discussed in Ghana's parliament is ratified, myself and fellow group members could potentially face imprisonment for up to 15 years."The bill has the backing of most Ghanaian MPs, as well as religious and traditional leaders.Felix Ntoso Sylvester Yaw, a lawyer in.
