Explaer: what mak Ghana’s anti-gay bill so extreme? | Global velopment | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY ACTIVISTS GHANA MAND RELEASE OF 21 PEOPLE ARRTED AT LGBTQI NFERENCE
• EXPLAER: WHAT MAK GHANA’S ANTI-GAY BILL SO EXTREME?
• GHANA LGBT: WHY HIGH PROFILE GHANAIAN PROFSORS, LAWYERS Y FIGHT AGAST ANTI-GAY BILL

GAY ACTIVISTS GHANA MAND RELEASE OF 21 PEOPLE ARRTED AT LGBTQI NFERENCE

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. 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.

EXPLAER: WHAT MAK GHANA’S ANTI-GAY BILL SO EXTREME?

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.

(Johannburg) – Arbrary arrts and tentn of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people Ghana, and a proposed dranian anti-LGBT bill are g ser enomic hardship and psychologil strs for LGBT people, Human Rights Watch said today.

Police erroneoly jtified the arrts on the grounds that the trag ssn was “promotg homosexualy” and that the gatherg was an “unlawful assembly. The urt said that all Ghanaians, cludg lbians and homosexuals, are entled to eely exprs their views, to assemble and monstrate support of those views and to propagate those views. A., a 35-year-old gay man om Hohoe, a municipaly the Volta regn, said that beg taed left him feelg huiated, though the vis of a sympathetic pastor migated the suatn.

GHANA LGBT: WHY HIGH PROFILE GHANAIAN PROFSORS, LAWYERS Y FIGHT AGAST ANTI-GAY BILL

Publicly nmn all threats and acts of vlence agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people, cludg vlence by fay members.

Adopt measur and take steps to raise public awarens of the harm of the homophobia that prevails the untry, and the need to bat . In particular hold public officials who make homophobic statements acuntable.

Introduce legislative and policy measur to prevent, punish, and provi effective remedi for vlence agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people on the basis of their real or imputed sexual orientatn and genr inty and ensure their nstutnal rights to equaly and non-discrimatn. Take necsary steps to protect lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people agast all forms of discrimatn, timidatn, and vlence, and amend sectn 104 of the Crimal Offenc Act, 1960, to ensure that sexual relatns between nsentg adults of the same sex are not nsired a mismeanour or punishable by law. Provi more fancial and technil support to civil society anizatns providg servic to lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who have suffered vlence, cludg domtic vlence, and discrimatn on the basis of their sexual orientatn and genr inty.