This screenshot is from this BBC article. | Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the Ghanian MP who sponsored the bill, speaks to media after it passed parliament
BBC:
The parliament in Ghana has approved a new bill criminalising homosexuality and the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities.
It proposes that identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer be punished by up to three years' imprisonment. The bill also introduces a "duty to report" prohibited acts to police.
Religious leaders have pressured President John Dramani Mahama, who still needs to ratify the legislation, to strengthen anti-gay laws since he came to power last year.
The ban has been sharply criticised by international organisations, including Human Rights Watch, which said it placed LGBTQ+ peoples' lives at risk while also "encouraging citizens to surveil and denounce one another".
Same-sex relationships have been banned in Ghana under laws dating from the British colonial era.
In an address to parliament, the bill's sponsor Reverend John Ntim Fordjour said it would protect Ghanaian family and cultural values.
He said the new bans would make existing laws "more robust, more encompassing and more stringent in dealing with the practices of LGBTQI".
Anyone who identifies as an "ally", a general term for a supporter of LGBTQ+ people, could also face a prison sentence.
» | Harry Sekulich and Thomas Naadi | Saturday, May 30, 2026
This reverend’s robe is pretty and colourful; his thoughts, alas, are ugly and dark! Clearly, he has been filling his head with fiction, myth, and fairy stories! His reading has clearly clouded his judgment.
When will these unenlightened, backward-thinking people ever learn that ALL of God’s children should be given their God-given right to pursue their own happiness, given the hand that God dealt them?
It is truly ignorant and benighted to imagine that the granting to gays of their rights to a life of happiness, peace, and harmony endangers family life in any way. Gays don’t want to dissolve family life; on the contrary, they merely wish to have the right to form their own families. A gay wants love and tenderness just as much as a straight person does. So why do these backward-thinking people wish to deny gays those same rights? The rights that straight people expect for themselves, and take for granted.
Being queer is not catching! Granting homosexuals rights does not detract from a heterosexual’s rights in any way whatsoever. Moreover, a straight person is not going to turn queer just because there are a few queers living amongst them in the community! People are born queer; it is not a lifestyle choice! Fact is, it was God’s choice for them to be that way in the first place. It was God’s choice if one is religious; and if one is not religious at all, then it was mother nature that made queers, queer. Either way, one cannot argue with God or Nature.
This is 2026. It is high time that you people grew up and learnt something about science. Stop believing in the fairy tales of yore, from books of dubious provenance, and start believing in scientific facts instead! If you do that, it will ensure the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, queer or straight! And maximizing happiness should be our aim. — © Mark Alexander
