Contents
Ghana wants to isolate the LGBTQ community by law. Even those who know gays and do not denounce them are threatened with imprisonment. The unanimous parliamentary resolution still needs to be signed by the president.
In the middle of the week, the parliament in the West African coastal state of Ghana unanimously passed a law with severe penalties against gay, bisexual, trans and queer people. The “Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Act” threatens anyone who identifies as LGBTQ or promotes, finances or otherwise supports such activities with up to five years in prison.
The law is not yet in force. But it is considered likely that President Nana Akufo-Addo will sign the regulation after elections in December. People who do not report to the authorities when they observe LGBTQ people and activities would now also be punished. But journalists who report on queer topics would also be affected.
The paradigm shift
There is already a law in Ghana that prohibits homosexual acts. However, it is not taken particularly seriously and the population was generally open to homosexuals. In the capital, Accra, there were entire neighborhoods and numerous meeting places where everyone could go and be themselves.
Ghana is facing a paradigm shift with the new law. In contrast to Uganda, for example, which was already restrictive before the death penalty for homosexual sex was introduced last year.
Legend:
The legislative plans in Ghana sparked concern in the international LGBTQ community as early as October 2021. This is also the case with the Ghana-born Wilhelmina Nyarko, who has lived in Harlem in New York for 30 years.
Keystone/AP/Emily Leshner
The draft for the anti-LGBTQ law in Ghana has been in parliament since 2021 and therefore for an unusually long time. In recent months there have been efforts to soften the bill somewhat, for example by proposing therapy instead of prison sentences for those convicted. This is probably also due to concerns that Ghana could lose Western aid money, as Uganda is now threatened with.
The colonialism argument
Nevertheless, the draft has now been passed unanimously by both Christians and Muslims. An often heard argument: the term “queer” is something “un-African,” a value imported and prescribed by the West that evokes memories of colonialism.
A political observer quoted a saying that only exists for what one has a name for. In Ghana, there are terms for gay and lesbian relationships, but trans, bi and queer are not known to the population and are supposedly going too far.
The consequences are already noticeable
The law changed the LGBTQ community from the very first parliamentary debate. Already back then there were the first reports of queer people being beaten up on the street. Likewise about cases where landlords gave queer people notice to vacate their apartments or increased the rent. In February 2021, an LGBTQ resource center in Accra that had also offered information on HIV and AIDS had to close after a police raid.
The LGBTQ community in Ghana has now largely disappeared from the scene. If the law goes into effect in December, it will become even more dangerous for queer people and their supporters in public.