Ghana lawmakers reintroduce controversial, cruel and regressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation
Ghana continues to fight against the LGBTQ+ community. (Credit: John Ochieng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Lawmakers in Ghana have reintroduced a controversial bill that– if passed into law – would become some of the toughest anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Africa.
The legislation, entitled the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, sets out a three-year prison term for those who merely identify as LGBTQ+, up to five years in prison for those who campaign for LGBTQ+ rights and a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns aimed at minors.
Currently, same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Ghana and deemed “unnatural carnal knowledge” which is punishable by up to three years imprisonment. Further to this, legal recognition of trans identities does not exist, gender affirming care is not provided, discrimination protections are basically non-existent and queer people cannot serve in the military.
The bill was originally approved by Ghana’s parliament in February 2024 but prior to his political term ending then-President Nana Akufo-Addo failed to sign it into law.
His successor, John Dramani Mahama, took office in January and was quoted as saying the bill was “dead” but added he thought “we should have a conversation about it again.”
As per reporting by Reuters, lawmakers from different political parties in Ghana said the same legislation – which bears a striking resemblance to Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill – had been reintroduced and was sponsored by 10 members of parliament.
Ever since the bill was first introduced it has been controversial, with human rights groups deriding the west African nation for passing it and concerns rising within Ghana that it would have an impact on billions of dollars worth of vital funding from other nations and the World Bank.
“The anti-LGBT rights bill is inconsistent with Ghana’s long-standing tradition of peace, tolerance, and hospitality and flies in the face of the country’s international human rights obligations,” Human Rights Watch researcher Larissa Kojoué said of the legislation in 2024.
“Such a law would not only further erode the rule of law in Ghana, but could also lead to further gratuitous violence against LGBT people and their allies.”
Speaking to Reuters a Ghanian trans woman named Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi said the bill’s reintroduction was “disheartening and hard to process”.
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