Anti-gay outcry has forced Ghana's first LGBT+ muny centre to temporarily close to protect s staff and visors three weeks after opened, s founr said on Tuday.
Contents:
- #INTERVIEW – GHANA’S LGBTIQ* MUNY OUT
- EXPLAER: WHAT MAK GHANA’S ANTI-GAY BILL SO EXTREME?
- ANTI-GAY UPROAR AFTER GHANA OPENS S FIRST LGBT+ MUNY CENTRE
#INTERVIEW – GHANA’S LGBTIQ* MUNY OUT
* ghana gay interview *
Tucked away a neighborhood of Accra, off Aflao Road, a group of Ghanaian gay activists e the hoe to gather secret and provi shelter to LGBTQ people need. But what one Ghanaian activist lls a “homophobe’s dream bill” has ep roots Ghana’s relig muny. Vio after vio show Ghanaians – mostly men perceived as beg gay – beg harassed and beaten on mera, sometim stripped naked by their assailants.
Jt a short drive om parliament, we meet a proment gay activist at Accra’s Black Star Square, where an arch memoratg Ghana’s pennce celebrat “Freedom and Jtice. Bediako, who ns the NGO Rightify Ghana, nounced the claim that homosexualy is a Wtern import or that LGBTQ activists were out to rec and nvert straight Ghanaians. “The same people they claim to have brought homosexualy to Ai are the same people who told them to have this hate they are g agast , ” he says.
EXPLAER: WHAT MAK GHANA’S ANTI-GAY BILL SO EXTREME?
Maxe Angel Opoku has found a new dience for her mic wh songs opposg a proposed law that would make illegal to intify as gay, transgenr or queer. * ghana gay interview *
This draft “Fay Valu” bill seems to be one more eratn of the homophobic iativ emanatg om their nferenc, ” he says. “Those who are promotg gays and lbians are not gog to have children at all, and wh a short time nobody should be surprised that Mlims will bee a majory this untry and clare an Islamic state, ” Archbishop Philip Naameh, the print of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, told CNN. In a massive onle prayer rally March entled: “Homosexualy: a ttable s to God, ” pastors at the lns-strong Pentestal Church said was a matter of “natnal secury” to pass a law; they ntue to ph members of parliament to follow through wh their plans.
Joe, the gay Ghanaian who was beaten and thrown out of his home, spent jt a few days at the safe hoe Accra before movg on. What is like to be a gay man Ghana – a untry where sex between men is illegal and punishable by up to three years imprisonment?
He is head of the anisatn LGBT+ Rights Ghana and also chairman of the Facebook page “Ghana Gay Blackmail List” – the queer muny here is actively fightg agast blackmailers, vlence and homophobia for the first time. You live openly gay, you do tnal work and are also active as a mol – are you often regnised the streets?
ANTI-GAY UPROAR AFTER GHANA OPENS S FIRST LGBT+ MUNY CENTRE
The reactns are mixed: There are people who are really open-md – and those who are openly homophobic and mean. How was your childhood and youth as a gay boy Ghana?
It was difficult for me not to nfi anyone regardg my homosexualy. Sce then, I have alt wh my sexualy and managed to accept myself as a gay man. In addn, homophobic policians, lears or public figur spread their anti-queer views the media.
Wh such posts, the muny warns each other of blackmailers chasg gay men datg apps. Bee of the still high level of homophobia the untry, we do not dare to make a clearly visible appearance.