Uganda's Anti-LGBTQ Law Met with Dismay in Ghana

May 30, 2023 | Alex Kofi Donkor was 'disappointed' but 'not surprised' as he watched Uganda enact one of Africa's harshest anti-LGBTQ laws. He's the founder of the civil rights group 'LGBT Rights Ghana' in a country that has its own proposed anti-LGBTQ bill.

Top Ghanaian Doctors Use Misinformation to Train Nurses in ‘Conversion Therapy’

OPEN DEMOCRACY: Influential mental health figures call LGBTIQ identities ‘disease’ and ‘disorder’ – yet regulators remain silent

Leading Ghanaian doctors provided anti-LGBTIQ health misinformation and promoted controversial ‘conversion therapy’ practices at a workshop for medical professionals, openDemocracy has discovered.

The two-day workshop in the capital, Accra, on providing “treatment, care and support” for LGBTIQ people was run by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association and aimed at nurses, psychologists, counsellors and midwives.

LGBTIQ people were described as “persons with sexual orientation and gender identity disorder”, and one speaker asked if homosexuality should be “rejected” as a vice treated “as a disease”. » | Khatondi Soita Wepukhulu | Thursday, July 28, 2022

Ghana's Anglican Bishops Condemn Proposed Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; Paul Marotta/Getty Images
ADVOCATE: Church leaders say that aspects of the bill are "severe" and that acts of hostility against LGBTQ+ people must be denounced.

Ghana’s Anglican Church leaders have condemned the country’s proposed anti-LGBTQ+ bill and urged lawmakers to reconsider the new legislation that would toughen an already existing anti-LGBTQ+ law.

On Friday, the House of Bishops in Ghana issued a statement saying the draft Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill — which is currently before the country’s parliament — is “severe and must be reviewed.”

The statement read, “We agreed that, though human dignity is always dominant, LGBTQI+ activities are frowned upon by the Ghanaian ethnicity and therefore, traditions, values, cultural and social frameworks must not also only be regarded but, respected and appreciated,” The Church Times reports.

“Nevertheless, Ghanaian citizens must not use the bill as an avenue to assault persons with homosexual orientation but show love to them as the Church of Jesus Christ is called to demonstrate the love of God by protecting all vulnerable people and groups. Acts of harassment, intimidation and hostilities against LGBTQ+ people should be condemned,” the statement continued. » | Alex Cooper | Friday, February 4, 2022

"Schweigen des Bundes zur Gefährdung von LGBTI Personen beschämend"

DER TAGESSPIEGEL | QUEERSPIEGEL : Einem Gesetzentwurf zufolge droht queeren Personen in Ghana künftig mehrere Jahre Freiheitstrafe. Die FDP fordert die Bundesregierung auf zu intervenieren.

In Ghana hat sich die Situation queerer Menschen in den vergangenen Monaten weiter verschlechtert: FOTO: IMAGO IMAGES
Queeren Menschen in Ghana droht Gefängnisstrafe
In Ghana hat sich die Situation queerer Menschen in den vergangenen Monaten weiter verschlechtert: Nachdem im Februar das einzige queere Zentrum in Accra von der Polizei gestürmt wurden, waren Mitglieder der Organisation LGBT+Rights Ghana im Internet und auf offener Straße massiven Anfeindungen ausgesetzt.

Einige mussten zwischenzeitlich die Stadt verlassen und sich verstecken. Im Mai wurden dann Teilnehmer*innen einer LSBTI Konferenz verhaftet und über Wochen inhaftiert. Wie LGBT+ Rights Ghana berichtete, wurde das Verfahren mittlerweile eingestellt, doch nun droht die nächste Gefahr.

Gesetzentwurf sieht weitere Kriminalisierung vor

Mittlerweile plant das Parlament ein Gesetz, was zur weiteren Kriminalisierung queerer Menschen beitragen und die Lage massiv verschärfen würde.

Sollte der Gesetzentwurf tatsächlich beschlossen werden, würde das bedeuten, dass queere Personen mit bis zu fünf Jahren Gefängnis bestraft werden könnten. Auch Personen, die sich für queere Rechte einsetzen, müssten mit einer Freiheitsstrafe von fünf bis zehn Jahren rechnen. » | Von Inga Hofmann | Dienstag, 10. August 2021

Ghana’s ‘Hate-filled’ Anti-LGBT+ Bill Bears Signature of America’s Religious Right, Activists Warn

LGBT+ rights are heavily suppressed in Ghana. (Creative Commons)
PINK NEWS: A “hate-filled” bill that criminalises LGBT+ “propaganda” has been officially presented in Ghana’s parliament – and activists say it carries the fingerprints of America’s religious right.

The “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021” would introduce a raft of policies punishing everything from sex toys and anal intercourse to trans healthcare and LGBT+ allyship.

Referred to a parliamentary committee by house speaker Alban Bagbin on Monday (2 August), the bill would see LGBT+ allies, as well as those who have provided or received gender-affirming healthcare, facing three to five years in prison. Even two people of the same gender kissing on the cheek or holding hands would be criminalised.

In statements to PinkNews, activists described the bill as an affront to human rights, as well as a troubling example of what a government-sanctioned, religious right wing can achieve in only a few months.

“We were shocked by its content and how they managed to put together so much hate in a single document,” Rightify Ghana said.

“When you read the content of the bill, you get the idea that the bill itself was not produced in Ghana. It has the signature of US right-wing groups.” » | Josh Milton | Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Obama's ‘Painful’ Ghana Visit
THE SUNDAY TIMES: AMERICA’S first lady, Michelle Obama, fought back tears yesterday as she toured a former Dutch slaving fort similar to the one in which it is believed her ancestors were held before being shipped to work on plantations in the deep south of the United States.

On the second day of President Barack Obama’s historic trip to sub-Saharan Africa, the first family flew from the capital, Accra, for a tour of the restored 17th-century Cape Castle, previously one of the biggest slave outposts on the West African coast.

“As painful as it is, I think that it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that sadly still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe,” said the president.

Before the visit, Michelle Obama, whose great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson, her oldest known relative, was born into slavery on a rice plantation in South Carolina, was made “Queen of the Cape Coast” by traditional chiefs of the region.

The couple and their children, Sasha, 8, and Malia, 11, then descended the narrow staircase into the dark dungeons of the ocean-side fort where thousands of slaves were kept for up to 12 weeks waiting for a ship to dock.

Thousands of shackled African slaves huddled in squalor before being herded onto ships bound for America through the “gate of no return”. Obamas tour slavers’ fort in ‘painful’ Ghana visit >>> Jonathan Clayton in Cape Coast, Ghana | Sunday, July 12, 2009

Barack Obama Tells Africa to Stop Blaming the West for Its Woes on Historic Ghana Visit
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has delivered the most challenging speech by a US leader in Africa for decades by castigating the continent's leadership for creating a culture of "brutality and bribery".

Adopting a tone his white predecessors never dared employ, the US President told Africa it could no longer blame the West for all its woes.

"Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner," he told the Ghanaian parliament. "But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants."

Seeking to jolt Africa's politicians out of a complacent belief that his shared ancestry with them would soften his rhetoric, Mr Obama spoke with withering directness.

Condemning tyrannical African leaders who "enrich themselves" amid the continent's chronic poverty, he promised fresh "partnerships" only with states that were well-governed.

For the kleptocrats and autocrats who still sprinkle the continent, he had a simple message: enough is enough.

"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery," he said. "That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."

Traditional "strong man" rulers must give way to "strong institutions" if they are to benefit from future Western assistance, he said.

"We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't," he told the country's parliament from a podium draped in traditional yellow and green kente cloth.

"Development depends on good governance, and that is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many countries. That's the change which can unlock African potential, but that is a responsibility which must be met by Africans.

"Africa's future is up to Africans." >>> Mike Pflanz in Accra | Saturday, July 11, 2009