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

Contents:

• EXPLAER: WHAT MAK GHANA’S ANTI-GAY BILL SO EXTREME?
• HOW 2 GAY MEN LIVE A COUNTRY WHERE HOMOSEXUALY IS ILLEGAL
• THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020
• GHANA TOPS GAY LIST AI
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• A NEW AGE OF GAY GENOMICS IS HERE. ARE WE READY FOR THE CONSEQUENC?

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

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.

HOW 2 GAY MEN LIVE A COUNTRY WHERE HOMOSEXUALY IS ILLEGAL

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.

THE 10 GAYEST STAT IN AMERI FOR 2020

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. If passed s current form, rights groups say uld spark a wch-hunt of sexual mori, advocy groups and “alli”, forcg the public to report on their are some of the ma measur, wh excerpts om the bill self:A clampdown on LGBTQ+ intyThe law would crimalise, wh up to five years prison, intifyg as a LGBTQ+ person, havg a gay relatnship or terurse.

(A) person ms an offence if the person holds out as a lbian, a gay, a transgenr, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally ….

GHANA TOPS GAY LIST AI

A duty to reportAnyone ma aware of gay acts who fails to report them uld also be crimalised. Shone Apong, a paralegal and advote for mori Ghana, says the bill is an attack on the existence of anyone believed to be gay or queer.

It was put forward by a cross-party group of MPs led by Sam Gee, an opposn MP and one of the most proment anti-gay figur parliament. Both are active Ai and other parts of the world fightg agast abortn rights and gay rights. Some 37 Ain untri crimalize homosexual relatnships, wh penalti rangg om mismeanors to ath sentenc, acrdg to a Human Rights Campaign Foundatn and Human Rights First report released Tuday.

In Ghana, a untry often regard as among the most progrsively mocratic natns Ai, homosexualy remas illegal, punishable by up to three years imprisonment. A recent Pew survey of var untri, not all Ain, reveals that 98 percent of Ghanaians feel that homosexualy is “morally unacceptable, ” the hight percentage of any untry surveyed. “In Ghana, everybody is culturally and religly bld, ” says Fred K., an openly gay man livg the Ghanaian pal of Accra who didn’t want to share his last name for fear of crimal and social repercsns.

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

“My fellow gays don’t want anythg to be legalized, ” Nana Yaw, a human rights activist and openly gay man, says.

A NEW AGE OF GAY GENOMICS IS HERE. ARE WE READY FOR THE CONSEQUENC?

This is our sixth time rankg the gayt stat to enlargeToday, more Amerins intify as beg gay than ever before. 5%, or about 1 every 25 Amerins says they are gay. That number has gone up over time — more and more Amerins are g out as ’ve prevly taken a look at the Gayt Ci Ameri and, to no one’s surprise, San Francis checked as the gayt cy.

What was surprisg, to at least, was the relatively low percentage of hoeholds that reported to the Cens as gay San Francis — only got thkg, if the gayt cy the untry has a gay populatn that small, how small mt the gay populatn be across Ameri? But what stat lead the pack when to the gay populatn?

Some parts of the untry are more gay than others. Stat that are more liberal, and that are on the east and wt asts skew more gay.