Ghana - Anti-Gay Bill Seeks Long Jail Terms for LGBTQ People

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Ghana national flag

28 JULY 2021
Deutsche Welle (Bonn)By Isaac Kaledzi

The proposed bill could see LGBTQ community members imprisoned between five to 10 years for identifying or advocating for their rights.

Ghana's laws already criminalize gay sex by forbidding "unnatural carnal knowledge".

Now West African country wants to go a step further in its efforts to outlaw the LGBTQ community.

If the bill is passed, people of the same sex who engage in sexual activity could be fined or jailed for between three to five years.

The law would also make it a crime to be LGBTQ -- it would be punishable by five years in prison for any person to identify as lesbian, gay, transgender, transsexual, queer, pansexual or non-binary (someone who doesn't identify as male or female).

The bill, entitled "The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021" was submitted to Ghana's parliament in June.

General support for anti-gay bill

It enjoys cross-party support, with Ghana's parliamentary speaker, Alban Bagbin openly backing the proposed law.

It is widely expected that the bill will win enough votes to become law in Ghana, a deeply religious society where homophobic persecution is widespread.

The bill also has strong support among Ghanaians.

Even if the bill does end up being thrown out, it has already endangered the lives of LGBTQ people "with the discussions that it fuels and the homophobia that it will empower," said Nana Yaa Agyepong, a member of Silent Majority Ghana, a transnational queer feminist group.

"This is something that we cannot have because we have Ghanaians that deserve to live safely and at peace at home and not forced into exile," she told DW in Accra.

No room for gay rights activism

Advocating for LGBQ rights would also be illegal under the bill, with activists facing jail sentences of between five and ten years.

Rights activist Agyepong sees this as worrying as it "squashes conversations and dissents around the bill so people would not be able to do public education or media appearances or even on social media," she told DW.

One of the eight members of parliament who proposed the bill, Sam George, said he was influenced by what he saw as the "growing advocacy" and "propaganda" of Ghana's LGBTQ community.

"We are just bringing our laws up to speed to ensure that so long as our national position has not changed and still homosexuality is an illegality, let's make the laws reflective of that," George told DW during an interview at his office in the capital, Accra.

He says there is no room for negotiation in the fight to curbing all forms of LGBTQ activism.

"Our constitution says rights can be curtailed so long as they pose existential threat to the public safety, public health and public moral," he told DW.

"This act of homosexuality poses a public health challenge and a public moral challenge."

Bill includes discredited conversion therapy

The bill would also allow for conversion therapy, also sometimes called 'gay cure therapy', which tries to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity.

A number of public health bodies, including Britain's National Health Service, have warned that conversion therapy is "unethical and potentially harmful." Germany has banned the practice for minors.

Despite the bill's general support, some Ghanaians are calling for review of the document before it gets put to a parliamentary vote.

Human rights lawyer and member of parliament Francis-Xavier Sosu, for one, has concerns.

"You can see for a fact that it has some challenges. Challenges in terms of how to criminalize values and culture of people. Challenges with the kind of sentence regime it seeks to impose particularly at a time that we have all complained about our prisons being choked," Sosu told reporters in parliament house in Accra.

The draft bill comes on the back of several recent crackdowns on Ghana's LGBTQ community.

Rights activists attending a workshop in the city of Ho, south of Ghana, were arrested in May in a high-profile police bust. Those arrested were attending a training for activists and paralegals when supporting LGBTQ people. They were released after more than three weeks in detention, but still face prosecution for holding an "unlawful gathering" and "advocating LGBTQ activities".

The office of the organization LGBT+ Rights Ghana was also raided and closed earlier this year.

Ghana's move to further criminalize LGBTQ people is in contrast to several other African countries, which have decriminalized homosexuality, such as Rwanda, Angola, Botswana and South Africa.

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LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill sparks spike in “legally sanctioned” extortion

BY OHOTUOWO OGBECHE
NOVEMBER 29, 2022


Since the law was proposed, instances of violence – including seemingly organised crime – against Ghana’s queer community have increased.

Dyed clothes dry on the rail tracks in Accra, Ghana. Credit: IMF Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds.

Last year, Ghana’s parliament introduced a controversial new anti-LGBTQ bill that could further criminalise same-sex acts and identities. Although homosexuality was initially outlawed under colonial rule – as in many African countries – and then in Ghana’s 1960 Criminal Offences Act, the new bill could significantly increase penalties and offences.

If passed, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill would introduce jail terms of up to 5 years for same-sex intercourse, up to 10 years for anyone “promoting” LGBTQ activities, and up to 1 year for a same-sex “public show of amorous relations”. Among other things, the law would also forcibly disband all LGBTQ organisations, ban trans healthcare, and prohibit adoption by same-sex couples.

Although it has not yet been signed into law, the anti-LGBTQ bill has already affected the lives of Ghana’s queer communities. A report this year by Outright International found a surge of violence against LGBTQ individuals. Of the 44 queer Ghanaians interviewed in the research, including paralegals and activists, every single one said they knew someone who had suffered some form of harassment or discrimination. These included sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions, beatings, mob attacks, evictions, and forced conversion practices.

Particularly worryingly, the report also found a sharp increase in targeted attacks in the form of blackmail and extortion. Several interviewees reported having been blackmailed and extorted, some more than once.

Donald*, a paralegal based in Accra, for instance, explained that the Grindr app has become a hub for blackmailers in Ghana; “they meet you on Grindr, take your phone, harass you, blackmail you,” he said. Osei, a trans woman, said she was extorted by someone she was considering dating; “he asked me to give him money, and when I refused, he threatened me that he would tell people that I am queer”, she said. Solomon, a transgender woman, was extorted by a man she met on Grindr; he took her money and phone and said he would take her to some priests to “pray for me so I can stop”.

Some criminals are even more emboldened and organised. Mark, an LGBTQ rights activist, received a call from someone saying they had been the victim of violence. When he went to meet the caller, seven men accosted him. They beat him up, took him to a house, stripped him naked, and took pictures and videos of him. The gang demanded GH₵5,000 ($345) from him, but after pleading, they settled for GH₵4,000 ($275). Mark paid them from his mobile money wallet after borrowing some money from a friend.

“They had a knife pointed at me and threatened to kill and bury me in the house, and no one would know,” he said. After releasing him, the men then demanded money from Mark’s phone contacts. “They said they would use those videos as evidence against me if I reported them,” he added. Mark believes the gang had undergone training to target and attack LGBTQ persons.

This trend of organised crime following the introduction of the anti-LGBTQ bill in Ghana should come as little surprise. In Nigeria, the prevalent crime of “kito” – in which predators target and extort queer people usually through dating apps – increased following the introduction of an anti-LGBTQ law in 2014, according to research by The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS). Perpetrators reportedly regard their crimes as “legally sanctioned” by that bill. It is certainly the case that victims struggle to get justice as they fear reporting violations due to law enforcement’s institutionalised homophobia and transphobia, and for fear of being further targeted by police themselves.

In Ghana, crimes against queer people have already increased despite the anti-LGBTQ bill not being passed yet. The Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has held public hearings on the proposed law but has not yet presented its report. The chair and deputy ranking member of the committee – MPs Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi and Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, respectively – declined to respond to African Arguments’ questions on the link between the proposed law and rising violence against queer Ghanaians.

When the bill does reach its second reading in Parliament, there is still hope that it might be scrapped. However, as we have seen from Ghana’s experience in the past year, even the possibility of further criminalising queer activities can be seen as sanctioning discrimination, abuse, and crimes against LGBTQ people.

*names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identities


Ohotuowo Ogbeche is a researcher with OutRight Action International.

 

Ghana court acquits 21 LGBTQ activists arrested during crackdown

The 21 activists who had been arrested for attending an LGBTQ event in May have been acquitted. The activists were taken into custody by police in a move that caused outrage among rights groups.

 

Ghana's LGBTQ community face an uncertain future with the proposal of a harsh anti-gay bill

Twenty-one LGBTQ activists, arrested in May on charges of "unlawful assembly," saw the charges against them dismissed by a court in Ghana on Thursday.

The 16 women and five men had been attending a paralegal training session conducted by Rightify Ghana, a human rights organization, in May. Police arrested the group for attending the training session, saying it promoted homosexuality, making it an unlawful gathering. They were released on bail by the country's High Court in June after more than three weeks of detention

Addressing the latest development, Chief Superintendent Akologo Yakubu Ayamga said: "What this means is that they cannot be brought back to court on the same charges. So they have been freed.”

The lawyer representing the 21 accused, Julia Averty, was pleased with the outcome. "We welcome the decision and that has always been our argument from the beginning of this case," adding, "it has been a rough journey since May, but, thankfully, the law has spoken." 

Ghana's stance on homosexuality

Gay sex is a criminal offense and punishable by up to three years imprisonment in the West African state. Those in the LGBTQ community are often victims of discrimination and abuse.

Ghanaian lawmakers are proposing harsher sentences and criminalizing LGBTQ advocacy in draft legislation that has made its way to parliament. The proposed bill has received global attention.

The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill had its first reading in the House and, according to Rightify Ghana, has been referred to the Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee.

Rights groups concerned

Various rights groups, including Rightify Ghana and Human Rights Watch, had been vocal in their condemnation of the arrests. For Ghana's president, Nana Akufo-Addo, the measures on so-called family values come at a sensitive time as he tries to entice African-Americans into moving to Ghana.

Various celebrities with Ghanaian heritage lent their support to Ghana's LGBTQ community. Idris Elba and Naomi Campbell were among those who signed an open letter in which they expressed their concern about the state of LGBTQ rights in Ghana.

kb/sms (AFP, Reuters)

HUMAN RIGHTS ILLEGAL IN GHANA

Ghana passes bill making identifying as LGBTQ+ illegal

Uganda, the nation with the most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa, is currently considering a ruling on a law there that threatens life imprisonment and even death for homosexuality.

By  Rédaction Africanews 

Ghana’s parliament has passed the highly contentious Anti-LGBTQ+ bill after about three years of deliberations.

The new bill imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as LGBTQ+.

It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.

The bill was approved unanimously on Wednesday following the completion of the third reading. Proposed amendments to the bill were rejected by the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, during the session.

Lawmakers heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling.

It is the latest sign of growing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the conservative West African nation.

The bill is now slated to be forwarded to President Akufo-Addo for his assent for it to be signed into law.

The president has in the past said that he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.

Last month Amnesty International warned that the bill "poses significant threats to the fundamental rights and freedoms" of LGBTQ+ people.

Activists fear there will now be witch-hunts against members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who campaign for their rights, and say some will have to go into hiding.

The bill proposes a jail term of up to 10 years for anyone involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns aimed at children.

It also encourages the public to report members of the LGBTQ+ community to authorities for "necessary action".

Ghana passes bill making identifying as LGBTQ+ illegal

By Thomas Naadi

BBC News, Accra

AFP

Ghana's parliament has passed a tough new bill that imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as LGBTQ+.

It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.

Lawmakers heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling.

It is the latest sign of growing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights in the conservative West African nation.

The bill, which had the backing of Ghana's two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law.

He previously said that he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.

Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana - it carries a three-year prison sentence.

Last month Amnesty International warned that the bill "poses significant threats to the fundamental rights and freedoms" of LGBTQ+ people.

Activists fear there will now be witch-hunts against members of the LGBTQ+ community and those who campaign for their rights, and say some will have to go into hiding.

The bill proposes a jail term of up to 10 years for anyone involved in LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns aimed at children

It also encourages the public to report members of the LGBTQ+ community to authorities for "necessary action".

MPs said the bill was drafted in response to the opening of Ghana's first LGBTQ+ community centre in the capital, Accra, in January 2021.

Police shut the centre following public protests, and pressure from religious bodies and traditional leaders in the largely Christian nation.

At the time, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council said in a joint statement that being LGBTQ+ was "alien to the Ghanaian culture and family value system and, as such, the citizens of this nation cannot accept it".

The bill approved by lawmakers is a watered-down version of an earlier draft - for instance, jail terms have been shortened and a controversial clause on conversion therapy has been removed.

During the days-long debate, the deputy parliamentary leader of the governing party, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, suggested further changes.

He said lawmakers should decide, via a secret ballot, whether people convicted of being members of the LGBTQ+ community should be imprisoned by the courts or ordered to do community service and undergo counselling.

However, he was heckled into submission by lawmakers who supported prison sentences.

Ghana's parliament passes strict new anti-LGBTQ legislation to extend sentences and expand scope


By Sarah Carter
February 28, 2024 / CBS News

Johannesburg — Ghana's parliament approved a highly controversial anti-LGBTQ bill on Wednesday after months of debate. The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill is one of the toughest pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Africa.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Ghana and punishable by up to three years in prison. Under the new law, that maximum sentence will increase to five years. It would also bring in a custodial sentence for people convicted of advocating for LGBTQ rights and make the distribution of material deemed supportive of LGBTQ rights illegal.

People attend a rally against a controversial bill being considered by Ghana's parliament that would make identifying as LGBTQ or advocating for LGBTQ rights a criminal offense punishable by prison, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York

EMILY LESHNER/AP

The bill, which was sponsored by a group of traditional leaders from Ghana's Christian and Muslim communities, now must be signed into law by President Nana Akufo-Addo. He's widely expected to do so, though he's not said publicly whether he'll sign the legislation.More than 60 "gay suspects" detained at same-sex wedding in Nigeria

The Big 18 & Human Rights Coalition, an umbrella group of lawyers and activists in Ghana, said at a Tuesday news conference that the bill "criminalizes a person's identity and strips away fundamental human rights" and urged the president to reject it.

Takyiwaa Manuh, a senior fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, noted to CBS News that Akufo-Addo has not signed any previous privately sponsored bills into law due to the demands of an article in the country's constitution that requires scrutiny over potential financial impacts of legislation.

Manuh said the speaker of the parliament had carried out no such analysis of the new bill as required, and that if it is enacted, she argued that it would place a "heavy burden on the judiciary, the police and other aspects of life."

"I am sad, disappointed and surprised that our commitment and democratic principles in this country appear to be so shallow," lamented Manuh. "This bill represents a real danger to our country, and we are looking to the president to uphold the values of our country and constitution."

Manuh said Ghanaian civil society organizations were ready to file legal challenges against the bill.

"Shockingly, we have found that the majority of people haven't even read the bill," which she said, "implies duties on parents, landlords, owners of businesses."

She said when people do read and understand how they could actually be implicated by the legislation, they're shocked at how it could make them liable for the actions of others.

As the debate over the bill increased in recent weeks, so did attacks on members of the LGBTQ community. Activists say students have been attacked and expelled from school, people have been robbed, and many have been subjected to extortion from community members threatening to out them.

Manuh said her organizatioon had received numerous reports of people being banished from their hometowns, losing their jobs and all support from their own families.

"It's a chilling feeling," she told CBS News. "No one should face jail time or harassment for their sexuality. Their rights must be respected."

The United Nations warned in 2021 that the proposed law would "create a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence" against gay people in Ghana.

The top constitutional court in Uganda, the nation with the most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa, is currently considering a ruling on a law there that threatens life imprisonment and even death for homosexuality.

Ugandan civil rights groups immediately challenged the anti-homosexuality act when it passed in December. The U.S. has condemned that legislation and sanctioned Uganda by restricting visas and withholding trade over it.

It is not clear how long the court may take to issue its ruling on the constitutionality of the law.

LGBTQ tolerance billboards spark uproar in Ghana


Thu, June 16, 2022, 


Large billboards promoting LGBTQ tolerance have been torn down in Ghana's capital and other areas this month after sparking outrage in the West African country.

Gay sex is illegal in conservative, highly religious Ghana, but a proposed law will criminalise even LGBTQ advocacy and impose longer jail terms for same-sex relations.

The "Promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values" bill is in parliament, but was widely condemned by the international community and rights activists.

LGBTQ activists said they put up posters several metres high in Accra and two other cities, with phrases such as "Love, Tolerance and Acceptance".

The posters quickly prompted calls from conservatives for police to take them down.

"So long as they mount those billboards, we would bring them down," opposition lawmaker Samuel George, one of the sponsors of the new law, said on Twitter this week.

Another poster was taken down in the northern region of Tamale on Wednesday.

Videos and photos posted on social media networks showed several slashed posters, in a heap on the ground.

LGBTQ Rights Ghana, the activist group that put up the posters, said their message in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale was simply to promote tolerance.

They said they had broken no laws to advocate for their rights.

"The billboards are our way of reminding and celebrating the charitable culture of Ghanaians," the group said in a statement.

"LGBTQ Rights Ghana and its members are law-abiding citizens."

Activist groups say the new bill is a setback for human rights in Ghana and have called on President Nana Akufo-Addo's government to reject it.

But the bill is widely supported in Ghana, where Akufo-Addo has said gay marriage will never be allowed while he is in power.

Ghana's Anglican bishops also endorsed the bill, saying LGBTQ beliefs were "unbiblical and ungodly" and also against Ghanaian tradition and culture.

LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.

More than half the countries in sub-Saharan African have laws against homosexuality, with some punishing it with death penalty under sharia law, although there have been no known modern-day executions.

str/pma/bp

Across Africa, major churches strongly oppose LGBTQ rights

THROUGH IMPRISONMENT AND LYNCHING

By KWASI GYAMFI ASIEDU, CHINEDU ASADU, RODNEY MUHUMUZA and MOGOMOTSI MAGOME

PHOTO ESSAY 1 of 9

Associate Pastor Caroline Omolo stands for a portrait at the Cosmopolitan Affirming Community church, which serves a predominantly LGBTQ congregation, in Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. “They have always organized a group to maybe silence us or make the church disappear,” Omolo says. “They don’t want it to appear anywhere.” (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

In Ghana, home to a diverse array of religions, leaders of major churches have united in denouncing homosexuality as a “perversion” and endorsing legislation that would, if enacted, impose some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ policies in Africa.

In Nigeria, the umbrella body for Christian churches depicts same-sex relationships as an evil meriting the lengthy prison sentences prescribed under existing law.

And in several African countries, bishops aligned with the worldwide United Methodist Church are preparing to join an in-the-works breakaway denomination so they can continue their practice of refusing to recognize same-sex marriage or ordain LGBTQ clergy.

In the United States, Western Europe and various other regions, some prominent Protestant churches have advocated for LGBTQ inclusion. With only a few exceptions, this hasn’t happened in Africa, where Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran leaders are among those opposing such inclusion.

“The mainstream churches — all of them — they actually are totally against it,” said Caroline Omolo, associate pastor at the Cosmopolitan Affirming Community in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a rare example of a church in Africa serving a predominantly LGBTQ congregation.

“They have always organized a group to maybe silence us or make the church disappear,” Omolo said. “They don’t want it to appear anywhere.”

Ghana, generally considered more respectful of human rights than most African countries, now faces scrutiny due to a bill in Parliament that would impose prison sentences ranging from three to 10 years for people identifying as LGBTQ or supporting that community. The bill has been denounced by human rights activists even as Ghanaian religious leaders rally behind it.

“Their role in perpetuating queerphobia and transphobia is clear and it’s very troubling and dangerous,” said Abena Hutchful, a Ghanaian who identifies as queer and co-organized a recent protest against the bill in New York City.

“The bill’s strongest supporters claim to be doing this in the name of religion,” says Graeme Reid, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program. He called the measure “a case study in extreme cruelty.”

The lawmakers proposing the bill said they consulted influential religious leaders while drafting it. Among those endorsing it are the Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the country’s chief imam.

“We don’t accept murderers, why should we accept somebody who is doing sex in a sinful way?” Archbishop Philip Naameh, president of the bishops’ conference, told The Associated Press. “If you take a stance which is against producing more children, it is a choice which is injurious to the existence of the Ghanaian state.”

The Christian Council — whose members include Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Anglican churches — considers homosexuality “an act of perversion and abomination,” according to its secretary general, the Rev. Dr. Cyril Fayose of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

“Homosexuality is not a human right and we reject it in all uncertain terms,” he declared earlier this year.

In Africa’s most populous country, the Christian Association of Nigeria has threatened to sanction any church that shows tolerance for same-sex relationships.

Such acceptance “will never happen,” Methodist Bishop Stephen Adegbite, the association’s director of national issues, told the AP.

Asked about Nigeria’s law criminalizing same-sex relationships with sentences of up to 14 years in prison, Adegbite said there are no alternatives.

“The church can never be compromised,” he declared.

Such comments dismay Nigerian LGBTQ activists such as Matthew Blaise, who told the AP of being manhandled by a Catholic priest distraught that Blaise wasn’t heterosexual.

“The church has been awful when it comes to LGBTQ issues, instead of using love as a means of communicating,” Blaise said.

In Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, Catholic Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins told the AP that Catholic teaching “recognizes in the dignity of every human person.” However, he said LGBTQ people who enter into same-sex relationships are leading “a disordered way of life” and should change their behavior.

Nigeria is home to one of the United Methodist bishops, John Wesley Yohanna, who says he plans to break away from the UMC and join the proposed Global Methodist Church. That new denomination, likely to be established next year, results from an alliance between Methodists in the United States and abroad who don’t support the LGBT-inclusive policies favored by many Methodists in the U.S.

Bishops Samuel J. Quire Jr. of Liberia and Owan Tshibang Kasap of the UMC’s Southern Congo district also have indicated they would join the breakaway.

Wilhemina Nyarko attends a rally against a controversial bill being proposed in Ghana's parliament that would make identifying as LGBTQIA or an ally a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York on Monday, Oct 11, 2021. "It's a scary bill," says Nyarko, who is from Ghana and has lived in New York for thirty years. "I felt I needed to come and support this." (AP Photo/Emily Leshner)

The Rev. Keith Boyette, a Methodist elder from the United States who chairs the Global Methodist initiative, said the African bishops’ views reflect societal and cultural attitudes widely shared across the continent.

“Same-sex orientation is viewed negatively,” he said. “That’s true whether a person is from a Christian denomination, or Muslim or from a more indigenous religion.”

In Uganda, where many LGBTQ people remain closeted for fear of violence and arrests, there is a retired Anglican bishop who in 2006 was barred from presiding over church events because he voiced empathy with gays.

In decades of ministering to embattled LGBTQ people, Christopher Senyonjo said he learned that sexuality “is a deep, important part of who we are. We should be free to let people be who they are.”

“Ignorance is a big problem in all this,” Senyonjo told the AP. “When there is ignorance, there is a lot of suffering.”

In 2014, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a harsh anti-gay law that, in its original version, prescribed the death penalty for some homosexual acts. Later that year, amid intense international pressure, a judicial panel annulled the legislation on a technicality.

However, a colonial-era law criminalizing sex acts “against the order of nature” remains in place.

Frank Mugisha, a prominent gay activist in Uganda, described church leaders as “the key drivers of homophobia in Africa.” Some Anglican leaders, he said, have deepened their hostility toward LGBTQ people in a bid to not lose followers to aggressively anti-LGBTQ Pentecostal churches.

In all of Africa, only one nation — South Africa — has legalized same-sex marriage. Even there, gay and lesbian couples often struggle to be accepted by churches, let alone have their marriages solemnized by clergy.

“People tell me, ‘I grew up in this church, but now I am not accepted,’” said Nokuthula Dhladhla, a pastor with the Global Interfaith Network, which advocates for LGBTQ rights within the religious sector.

She said some religious leaders are privately supportive of same-sex marriage, but reluctant to do so openly for fear of being sidelined by their more conservative peers.

South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, world-renowned for his opposition to apartheid, has been an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights.

“I would not worship a God who is homophobic,” he once said. “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say ‘Sorry, I would much rather go to the other place.’”

Caroline Omolo, the activist pastor in Nairobi, said some Kenyan religious leaders blame LGBTQ people for the coronavirus pandemic.

“When we say we are still serving God, they don’t see something that’s possible,” she said. “They think it’s something unfamiliar and should be stopped.”

However, she said some faculty and students at Kenya’s theological schools support her LGBTQ church, which has about 300 members.

“The students, we call them the future generation, leaders of tomorrow,” she said. “When we have that population on our side, I believe there’s nothing that can shake us.”

___

Asiedu reported from New York, Asadu from Lagos, Nigeria; Muhumuza from Kampala, Uganda; and Magome from Johannesburg, South Africa. Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, and David Crary in New York contributed.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

'Listen to us': LGBTQ activists seek help, prudence in raising human rights abroad

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday, May 19, 2023


OTTAWA — LGBTQ activists say Canada should ramp up its help in the fight against an organized movement to clamp down on sexual and gender minorities in Africa, while being cautious about when to raise issues in public.

"We are being bullied into silence," said Alex Kofi Donkor, the founder of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, on a visit to Ottawa.

"We always have a strategy and I hope you always listen to us."

Ghana has outlawed homosexual acts since British rule, including under an existing criminal offence of "unnatural carnal knowledge." Human Rights Watch says LGBTQ people in the country face a climate of fear and violence.

Donkor, 33, has tried to change that reality by starting a blog years ago to document human rights issues.

Eventually, the medical researcher launched an organization to inform media, preachers and politicians about LGBTQ issues. The group opened a physical office in January 2021, which police raided a month later and ordered closed.

By August 2021, the country's parliament was debating a bill that would ban gender-affirming care and jail people for up to a decade for purportedly promoting LGBTQ activities.

And yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made no mention of the bill in the public portion of his meeting with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo two weeks ago on the sidelines of King Charles's coronation in London.

That was the right move, Donkor said.

"There are times where we need that outward speaking and there are times where we don't."

Comments from foreign leaders can lend weight to the narrative that the West is trying to impose LBGTQ issues on Africa.

In March, Ghana's presidential palace was lit up in the colours of the Ghana and U.S. flags to mark Vice-President Kamala Harris's visit.

The lights resembled a rainbow, causing outcry from conservatives who claimed the U.S. was trying to push its agenda.

Then at a joint press conference with Akufo-Addo, Harris was asked to comment on the bill by an American journalist, and called it a "human rights issue."

Donkor said he was already fielding interview requests about the projected rainbow lights, and the Harris exchange created more pushback.

"It caused another wave, like 'Oh, let's hurry up and pass the bill. How dare Harris come and tell us who we are? We are Africans, who have values blah, blah, blah.' And then we have to come and defend that."

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2:16

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11:47

KXXV Waco, TX   LGBTQ+ Rights center of attention in Austin

4:30

Donkor spoke at an event in Ottawa this week about how countries with feminist foreign policies should address sexual orientation and gender identity.

The panellists noted that in reality, some anti-LGBTQ groups are getting Western funding.

A report by the left-leaning Political Research Associates think tank found Evangelical groups in the U.S. are funding anti-gay organizations across Africa, and an investigation by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change that tracked U.S. aid dollars funding anti-gay campaigns in Uganda.

Damjan Denkovski of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy in Berlin said Russian laws against "homosexual propaganda" are being replicated in other countries, and that Moscow derails United Nations investigations into human rights in various countries by claiming that the West is imposing on local values.

"We cannot allow fundamental human rights and dignity to be a sideshow to geopolitics in this way."

Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, said that means activists and governments need to step up.

"We are dealing with a well resourced, well co-ordinated transnational movement against the rights of 2SLGBTQ people, women, and all other oppressed folks, and it's going to require that level of co-ordination and funding to respond to it," she told the panel.

Owusu-Akyeeah's parents immigrated from Ghana and she said the crackdown in that country impacts the diaspora abroad.

"It impacts how our parents here and how our elders here view queer and trans rights, even though they live in Canada," she said in an interview.

Owusu-Akyeeah said she's often in touch with LGBTQ activists and Canada's diplomats in Ghana, and uses her past experience as a Global Affairs Canada analyst to suggest ways to advance rights.

"It's not necessarily positioning ourselves as knowing what's best, but it's listening to the people directly impacted and having their suggestions, recommendations inform what decisions we make," she said.

Still, Donkor said a political and cultural calculation needs to be made by world leaders in deciding whether to raise these issues while visiting other countries.

Last November, Trudeau took it upon himself to denounce Uganda's "appalling and abhorrent" legislation that prescribes a death penalty for having sex while being HIV positive, and life imprisonment for homosexual acts.

And on Friday, Trudeau called out the Italian government during a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

Meloni's far-right-led government has moved to limit recognition of parental rights to the biological parent in families with same-sex parents. "Obviously, Canada is concerned about some of the (positions) that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights," Trudeau told Meloni at the start of the meeting.

As for Donkor, he's returning Saturday to Ghana despite death threats and physical attacks that would likely give him a shot at a refugee claim in Canada. He has hope his country can embrace its past as a matriarchal society that welcomed diversity.

He said colonial churches imposed a gender binary, but there are still rural communities with people who "integrate between two genders, and are revered within the society."

Donkor similarly blames colonial policies for the political instability that has produced coups and poverty, which he said is what drives many to a hard line form of Christianity espoused by U.S. missionaries in the 1980s.

The end result, he said, is a society where doctors read out Bible passages to transgender people who visit a hospital for a stomach illness, and nurses who refuse to treat gay people for fear of going to hell.

Donkor said Canadians can help, but only if they let Ghanaians take the lead.

"We have the answers because we are the ones who are facing it," he said.

"We will tell you what to say, and what will work."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

HUMAN RIGHTS UGANDA

East Africa's LGBTQ community under siege
Isaac Kaledzi | Julius Mugambwa

DW
18 hours ago

In East African countries, people with diverse sexual orientations live in constant fear. Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is on the rise in in the region as lawmakers in Uganda vote to pass new legislation to punish the community.

https://p.dw.com/p/4P1Pk


Trigger warning: Disturbing details follow below.

Eric Ndawula identifies as gay in Uganda. That comes at a high cost in a country that now wants to introduce even more draconian laws to punish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.

Ndawula has been shunned by his family because of his sexual orientation. He has also faced arrests and evictions.

"We were raided by a mob who wanted to attack us and kill us. But when we called the police to our assistance, we were instead arrested," he told DW.

Ndawula said he and others were then subjected to forced anal examinations by authorities.

"At the end of the day, we became suspects of carnal knowledge against the order of nature, even though we called the police for support from a mob that was going to lynch us," he said.

A picture taken at an LGBTQ pride event in Entebbe, Uganda in 2014

Image: Rebecca Vassie/AP Photo/picture alliance

The situation for the LGBTQ community in Uganda, where same-sex relations have been outlawed since the colonial era, is expected to get much worse.

New legislation was passed by the country's lawmakers on Tuesday and now awaits the consent of President Yoweri Museveni. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill provides for prison terms of up to 10 years in prison. As lawmakers debated the draft law on March 21, there was little sign of opposition.
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spiking

Asuman Balasalirwa, the lawmaker who put forward the controversial bill, told DW that it had widespread support.

"If you went to my constituency of Bugiri Municipality and ask the people whether they are with me on this issue, they will tell you we are behind our MP," he told DW.

VIDEO Uganda set to toughen anti-gay legislation 03:12

Angel Maxine, a transgender woman and leading advocate for LGBTQ rights in Ghana, has been monitoring Uganda's bid to criminalize homosexuality and identifying as LGBTQ.

"For me, I call it the reincarnation of colonialism. That is how the whole picture of what is happening in Africa looks to me. For me, it makes no sense," she told DW.

The lawmaker Balasalirwa has been lashing out at the LGBTQ community.

"Why are they invading our schools? Why are they invading our children? They are just being provocative. So, you want to invade our children and we look on? You want to invade our schools and we look on?" he said in a DW interview.

In 2014, Uganda's courts nullified draft anti-LGBTQ legislation on grounds that the parliament had not followed procedure. Balasalirwa's bill was similar to what was tabled in parliament at the time.

Ghana is also due to debate new anti-LGBTQ legislation

Image: Sumy Sadruni/AFP

Politician talks of 'castration' in Tanzania

In Ghana, an anti-LGBTQ bill is awaiting debate in parliament. Maxine is one of many activists who are openly opposing it.

"Criminalizing other human beings, telling other human beings how to live their lives, telling other human beings that it's like this there's no fluidity, you can't be yourself. You can't, If you do, you are going to prison. It affects the mental health of the human being,” Maxine says.

Ndawula and Maxine agree that legislation to criminalize the LGBTQ community reinforces the homophobia and hate people like themselves experience.

The righs of the LGBTQ community has come under increasing threat in Tanzania too. Same-sex relationships are illegal and convictions can lead to lengthy prison terms. Leading politicians are now calling for even harsher punishment.

On March 19, Mary Chatanda, the head of the women's wing of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party called for the castration of homosexual men.

"We ask the government to make stiff penalties to offences related to same-sex activities. Such people should be castrated if found guilty," Chatanda said. She was speaking at a public gathering to mark President Samia Suluhu Hassan's second year in office.

Kenya bans books with LGBTQ themes

According to Maxine, anti-LGBTQ statements are meant to intimidate the LGBTQ community.

"Castrating somebody won't change their feelings. Castrating somebody won't change who they are," Maxine told DW.

"If I am a trans woman and I still have my penis and you castrate me, you are affirming me of who I am because you still can't change my feelings of who I want to be with or who I love or how I want to be myself or how I want you. You can't change the feelings of a human being."

Last month, the Kenyan government intensified its restrictions on imported books with LGBT themes after public outcry. Parents and religious leaders in the country had demanded an audit of such books.

In late February, a Supreme Court that gave an LGBTQ and intersex rights group the green light to register as a non-governmental organization sparked an outcry.

Even President William Ruto criticized the ruling, saying homosexuality remained unacceptable in Kenya.

VIDEO Kenyan court paves the way for LGBTQ NGOs 01:55

Edited by Benita van Eyssen

Where Change Is Coming for LGBTQ Rights Around the World




Olivia Konotey-Ahulu
Mon, January 16, 2023 at 10:00 PM MST·12 min read

(Bloomberg) -- If progress in 2022 is anything to go by, there’s reason to be optimistic about the global direction of travel when it comes to same-sex relationships, LGBTQ campaigners say.

In the second half of the year, there was a flurry of movement to decriminalize same-sex intimacy in Singapore, St Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda. These were some of the last holdouts among countries with histories of colonial-era laws prohibiting such activity. “It feels like something of a tipping point,” says Neela Ghoshal, Senior Director of Law, Policy and Research for global advocacy NGO Outright International. Such developments “allows us to really say that there is a global norm that same-sex intimacy should not be criminalized.”

Marriage equality has come a long way too, with countries from Cuba to Slovenia passing legislation last year; 33 governments have now legalized same-sex unions, triple the number compared to a decade earlier according to data from the advocacy group ILGA World.

Greece is one of a handful of countries to introduce a ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors during the year; France, Israel and New Zealand also took steps to make the practice of aiming to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity illegal in 2022. In Brazil, LGBTQ campaigners hope the re-election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva can row back some of the damage done by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, while the US Congress rushed to pass the Respect for Marriage Act and protect statutory recognition of interracial and same-sex marriages.

But pockets of friction are growing over specific issues: one is the rights of transgender people. As of September, US lawmakers proposed more than 300 bills classed as anti-LGBTQ by the Human Rights Campaign; more than 40% of them targeted the trans community, the advocacy group said. The UK also saw its score on the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Index plummet more than any other country this year, partly due to its decision to exclude trans people from a ban on conversion therapy.

Conservative governments, especially those in Europe, have “weaponized” trans issues in recent years too to boost their political capital, said Julia Ehrt, executive director for ILGA World.

“The atmosphere, in particular in the UK but as well in Spain, has been quite hostile towards trans people,” she said. Although Spain passed a bill toward the end of the year that makes it one of the few places in the world where anyone over the age of 16 can easily change their gender on their ID card, the debate caused tensions to flare among its left-wing government and coincided with a jump in hate crimes in the country.

Read More: Spain’s Win for Transgender Rights Almost Tore the Country Apart

Meanwhile some governments actively sought to row back LGBTQ rights, such as Indonesia’s decision to ban sex outside of marriage, effectively criminalizing it for same-sex couples, as well as pushes in Russia and Ghana to crack down on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda.”

But overall progress on LGBTQ rights is moving forward, say Ehrt and Ghoshal, who are hopeful about what the new year could bring. “Ultimately I think the pendulum is swinging in the right direction,” Ghoshal said.

Here’s a snapshot of what that momentum looks like around the world.

India

India’s top most court is all set this year to consider the question of granting legal recognition to same-sex marriages. Some couples have knocked on the Supreme Court’s door with the argument that marriage equality is the logical next step for LGBTQ rights after consensual gay sex was decriminalized in the country in 2018.

Such a move could give India’s 1.4 billion people the right to have a same-sex marriage.

“The potential impact of such a ruling will be momentous,” said Kanav Narayan Sahgal, Communications Manager at Nyaaya, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. A law ironed out on same-sex marriage is also likely to open discussion on related aspects such as domestic violence, adoption, child-custody, and inheritance for the LGBTQ community, Sahgal said.

But the path ahead isn’t straightforward. Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) only recently opposed same-sex marriage before a state court. Speaking before Parliament in December, BJP lawmaker Sushil Modi urged the government to oppose same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court saying that it goes against the traditional ethos of the country.

“If the court does decide that such matters are best left to Parliament to decide, then I am afraid same-sex marriage will not be recognized in India as long as the BJP holds a majority,” says Sahgal who is also an LGBTQ rights activist. Eight state level polls likely to be held this year will indicate the pulse of the nation before an election for the next premier in 2024.

Meanwhile the Madras High Court in the southern state of Tamil Nadu has taken significant strides in making laws and policy inclusive for the LGBTQ community. A string of progressive decisions concerning rights of sexual minorities have been taken by the state on orders passed by the high court. These include penalizing police harassment of the community and declaring so-called conversion therapy as a professional misconduct for medical professionals. In 2023, Tamil Nadu is expected to release its draft policy for the LGBTQ community, becoming the first Indian state to do so. —Shruti Mahajan

Brazil

After four years of what they consider a complete stall in their battle for equal rights, the LGBTQ community in Brazil is now pushing for an extensive legislative agenda including same-sex marriage.

Left-wing Lula was inaugurated as president on Jan. 1 and groups have already asked him to pass more than eight related bills and several other proposals such as creating a role for the first national secretary for public policy focused on LGBTQ rights.

“We want better education, to be represented at the Executive branch, improvements in the health system, public safety, culture, all of it,” said Toni Reis, director and president of the National LGBTI+ Alliance. His is one of more than 100 associations that signed a letter addressed to Lula.

More than anything, the community is impassioned about making sure that rights safeguarded by the country’s top court are put into law. For example, Brazil's supreme court allowed same-sex marriage more than 10 years ago but this is still to be confirmed by Congress. They also hope to pass bills allowing transgender people to change their official ID to match their gender without showing proof of a change-of-sex surgery.

Each of these could be difficult tasks. The majority of legislators elected last October supported Bolsonaro, known for an agenda centered on conservative family values. Still, Congress will now have six representatives of the LGBTQ community including two transgender lawmakers, a record so far in Brazil.

“Bolsonaro wasn’t able to tear everything down, he wasn’t strong enough but we also had the supreme court defending our rights,” said Reis. “Now is our time to convince liberals from the right wing, evangelicals... We’ll have to earn their votes.” —Maria Eloisa Capurro

Slovenia

When Slovenia’s Constitutional Court unexpectedly ruled in July that same-sex couples had the right to marry, Centrih Albreht and his now-husband became one of the country’s first such couples to tie the knot.

It was a victory for the 36-year-old marketing specialist, who had watched his community suffer two referendum defeats on legalizing same-sex marriage. A party planned earlier to celebrate their civil union turned into a full-blown wedding in August. “It was a very special day for us and our families,” he said.

The first eastern European country to legalize same-sex unions and allow couples to adopt children, Slovenia contrasts sharply with the more conservative countries in the region, whose politicians still embrace anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The EU took legal action in 2021 against Hungary and Poland for violating the community’s rights.

Those attitudes have had a direct impact in Slovenia, where many gay couples — often locals with partners from Eastern Europe — choose to build a home in that country, which Centrih Albreht sees as “a beacon” for more accepting society. The trend could strengthen further in 2023.

According to Lana Gobec, the head of the LGBTQ activist organization Legebitra, same sex-marriages will increase in Slovenia in 2023 and eventually converge with the proportion of marriages in the overall population. Gobec knows of several gay couples who already applied for adoption but tempers expectations over when the first adoption by a same-sex parent might happen because of the long process.

While Centrih Albreht sees the change in Slovenia as an important step to more acceptance, he sees the need for a bigger push for transgender rights. Citing this year’s abortion ruling by the US Supreme Court, he also worries progress can be reversed.

“The fight must always continue,” he said. “Expanding human rights has never hurt anyone. If anything, all of society benefits.” —Jan Bratanic

Greece

With a general election scheduled by April at the earliest, the country’s LGBTQ community has one key priority for the next government: marriage equality.

Greece passed legislation to recognize same-sex civil partnerships in 2015 and gender identity in 2017 but same-sex marriage hasn’t seen similar progress. Any possible move to legalize marriage between two people of the same sex will require changes to family law so that the state recognizes both members of the couple as parents and guardians of children rather than just a biological parent.

The same-sex unions didn’t provide the same access to rights as equal marriage would do, said Giannis Papagiannopoulos, a rights activist and publisher of Antivirus Magazine, Greece’s only LGBT publication. Lawmakers voting for equal marriage for the LGBTQI+ communities in Greece “would be a direct recognition of our families, our basic human rights and our very existence,” he said.

Few expected such progress to come from Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the current prime minister and leader of the center-right New Democracy party. While he hasn’t officially announced plans to legalize same-sex marriage, the premier is expected to address the issue during his next term if he wins the national ballot.

If he does, it would carry on the momentum set by the Greek leader after he was first elected. In 2021, he appointed a committee to draft a national strategy for improving LGBTQ rights. That strategy, which runs through 2025, acknowledges that rights for LGBTQ people “would not be complete without addressing the issue of marriage equality which, if established, would resolve numerous other issues associated with family law in Greece.”

The main opposition Syriza party of former premier Alexis Tsipras supports same-sex marriage and submitted a proposal in July which also proposes related measures such as the legalization of assisted reproduction for all couples.

Mitsotakis has introduced a number of reforms since 2021, such as lifting a ban on homosexual men making blood donations, outlawing in 2022 so-called sex normalizing surgeries on children and in September approving the official use of pre-exposure prophylactic drugs, commonly known as PrEP, to focus on the prevention of HIV infection rather than just on the treatment of the virus.

Greece has seen one of the the biggest jumps in ILGA’s ranking of LGBTQ rights among European countries following adoption of the strategy.

The introduction of PrEP, “is a step in the right direction for reducing HIV infection in the LGBTQ community,” said Giorgos Papadopetrakis, the vice chair of Positive Voice, an association for HIV-positive people in Greece. “Now, we’re just waiting to see how the decision will be implemented — how it will pass into action,” he said. —Paul Tugwell

United States

Progress on LGBTQ rights in America were “a mixed bag” in 2022, said Ehrt, the executive director of Outright International.

On the one hand, the historic Respect for Marriage Act Congress passed in December safeguards the rights to same-sex and interracial marriage from being rolled back in the same way abortion access has this year. But one of the first openly gay Black members of Congress, Mondaire Jones, said the legislation doesn’t go far enough, and doesn’t ensure marriage equality in every state. (Jones lost his bid for reelection in November, though more LGBTQ politicians were elected to Congress this cycle than ever before.)

With hundreds of anti-LGBTQ laws introduced at state-level during 2022, campaigners are also worried about a particular focus on rolling back rights among young people and transgender people. That trend includes limiting the participation of transgender people in sports that affirm their gender identity, as well as Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law which prohibits discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

Pressure to ban books with LGBTQ characters and themes at schools and public libraries has also increased. In messaging rolled out ahead of the midterms, the GOP led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listed anti-trans sports bills and legislation on parental rights among the party’s priorities.

Legislators in at least seven states proposed anti-drag bills ahead of the 2023 legislative session. These bills are often broad in nature, and many target people defined as “male or female impersonators.” LGBTQ advocates say they’re worried such language could be used to target transgender people. Other proposed bills target gender-affirming healthcare, particularly for children. Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign described it as a “very intentional attack on LGBTQ youth from conservative legislatures across the country.”

The latter part of 2022 saw a surge in hostility toward the community, including the mass shooting at a LGBTQ club in Colorado, where five people were killed. The suspect now faces more than 300 charges including hate crimes. Reported anti-LGBTQ incidents, such as demonstrations and violence, have risen twelve-fold to almost 200 since 2020, according to a report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project in November. —

Kelsey Butler, Ella Ceron and Olivia Konotey-Ahulu