Move to punish LGBTQI people unites Ghana’s rival political parties

When it comes to cracking down on the LGBTQI community, not much separates Ghana’s two main political parties.

An MP of the governing party has joined seven opposition MPs to sponsor a bill to punish LGBTQI people with jail time, legalise discrimination and force anyone who knows that someone is gay to report that person to the authorities.

The proposed legislation will also prevent journalists from producing content seen to be sympathetic to LGBTQI people, and it provides for conversion therapy, a practice the UN has said can lead to torture.

The opening — and forced closure in February — of an LGBTQI community centre in Accra provided political fodder to both sides to speak up in defence of Ghana’s “family values”.

The bill’s main sponsor, Sam George, has since presented himself as a defender of these values on CNN and the BBC, using language that resonates with the country’s influential religious groups.

The bill is being debated at the committee level and will then be submitted to the parliament for a second reading.

With the move, the West African nation — considered a regional exemplar of democracy — is bucking the trend of progress being made, albeit slowly, elsewhere on the continent. Gabon’s senate voted last year to decriminalise homosexuality and Botswana joined SA and Angola in 2019 to do the same. While large sections of Africa remain low on the global gay rights scale, progress is being made.

In April, Twitter said it would set up its first Africa office in the country, noting that “as a champion of democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech”. The company did not respond to requests for comment on how the bill could affect its plan.

Even before the piece of legislation was crafted, Ghana’s LGBTQI community was facing increased scrutiny. Twenty-one gay rights activists in the town of Ho were arrested in May for unlawful assembly and denied bail before the case was eventually dismissed.

“The bill, if passed, would contravene provisions of the 1992 constitution of Ghana and international human rights instruments,” said Julia Selman Ayetey, a lawyer who represented the group.

Ghana has about 30 million people, with Christians making up about 70% of the population and Muslims about 20%.

Most politicians are reluctant to defend gay communities in the region, sometimes seeing homosexuality as an import from the West that promotes a Western agenda.

“There is also a lot of misinformation and sensationalisation of the community,” said Alex Kofi Donkor, director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana.

“I am an unapologetic gay man … This bill is trying to treat us as second-class citizens.”

Ghana’s anti-LGBTQI push comes at a time of political uncertainty. The main opposition party is probably considering a new leader after former president John Mahama’s two successive defeats at the polls. The incumbent, President Nana Akufo-Addo, does not have a clear successor. He is a year into his second term and cannot run in 2024.

In nearby Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 signed into law a similar bill, which had been approved by the senate more than two years earlier, as he prepared a re-election bid. The former leader, who is now seeking to burnish his credentials as a statesman, is often asked why he assented to legislation that has contributed to a spike in attacks against people perceived as gay.

Akufo-Addo, a human rights lawyer, has said the parliamentary process should be allowed to take its course.

“Ghana is a beacon to a lot of African countries,” said Donkor.

“If the bill passes, it will serve as a bad example to other African countries and even the world.”

I AM AN UNAPOLOGETIC GAY MAN … THIS BILL IS TRYING TO TREAT US AS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS Alex Kofi Donkor Director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana