Ghana, Africa

Upon being the first African nation to achieve independence from the United Kingdom in 1957,the name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana that once extended throughout much of western Africa. In the Ashanti language it is spelled Gaana. Under Ghanaian law, male homosexual activity is officially illegal. Gay men can also be punished under provisions concerning assault and rape, only if "in public or with minor". The Constitution of Ghana guarantees the protection of all human rights for Ghanaian citizens "whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender", but does not mention sexuality.

 

News & Reports:

 

Queer Lives Under Threat as Ghana’s Parliament Passes Anti-LGBTQ Bill

New York, USA – Outright International strongly condemns the passing of the “Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021” in Ghana, which aims to criminalize the very existence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals and their allies. The bill that Ghana’s parliament passed on 28 February 2024 will have severe… Read more »

Kamala Harris Promotes LGBTQ+ Rights in Ghana as Homophobic Bill Considered

The vice president voiced support for “equality among all people.” Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken out for LGBTQ+ rights while visiting Ghana, where legislation that would impose harsh punishments for LGBTQ+ identity and advocacy is pending. “I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting the freedom and supporting the fighting for equality among… Read more »

Will Ghana introduce some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world?

West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu describes how a backlash against the opening of an LGBTQ+ safe space in Ghana has fuelled homophobic legislation In February 2021, a community centre for LGBTQ+ people in Ghana was closed down weeks after it had opened, following a wave of protests. As our west Africa correspondent, Emmanuel Akinwotu, explains… Read more »

Ghanaian chief threatens to storm parliament with 10,000 homophobes to force through anti-LGBT+ bill

A regional chief in Ghana has threatened to storm the country’s parliament with 10,000 people to force through a cruel anti-LGBT+ bill. The “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021”, leaked in July this year, would criminalise everything from sex toys, to trans medical care, to simply being an LGBT+… Read more »

Almost 90% of people in Ghana don’t want LGBTI people meeting

Most Ghanians think LGBTI should be excluded from work or school LGBTI groups have come together in Ghana. They want to create a plan of how to overcome violence and discrimination in the African country. Sisters of the Heart in partnership with Alliance for Dynamics Initiative came together to discuss how to protect the rights… Read more »

‘One guy took a cutlass’: gay women at greater risk of violence in Ghana

Research shows Ghanaian women are likelier than men to be abused and cast out of homes and jobs because of their sexual preferences LGBT women interviewed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said they had been beaten, evicted from their homes and ostracised by their communities. Many struggled to find accommodation and employment. Wendy Isaack, who… Read more »

‘One guy took a cutlass’: gay women at greater risk of violence in Ghana

Research shows Ghanaian women are likelier than men to be abused and cast out of homes and jobs because of their sexual preferences LGBT women interviewed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said they had been beaten, evicted from their homes and ostracised by their communities. Many struggled to find accommodation and employment. Wendy Isaack, who… Read more »

Witness: For Ghana’s Lesbians, Lives of Rejection and Fear

Shattered Dreams and Broken Homes in Kumasi “We can’t ever go home again,” said one of the three young women, barely in their 20s, as they told their story and struggled to fight back their tears. They looked to each other for support and protection as they sat in the small hotel outside the Ghanaian… Read more »

President of Ghana: Legalising homosexuality is ‘bound to happen’ in time

The President of Ghana says that the country is bound to eventually decriminalise homosexuality – but only after popular support grows. Nana Akufo-Addo, who became the country’s President in January, was asked in an interview with Al Jazeera last month about whether he could see the country reform on LGBT issues. ? It is currently… Read more »

Homosexuality not on Ghana’s agenda – President Akufo-Addo

Ghana’s president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo has said the issue of same-sex relationships was not on the agenda of the West African country. He, however, believes that its snowball effect will soon reach Africa. Akufo-Addo was speaking in an interview with Gulf news channel, Al Jazeera, during which he addressed a series of national,… Read more »

Ghana: Fighting for peace and human rights for Ghana’s LGBT youth

School Days, Fear and Loathing To mark the United Nations International Youth Day and its theme of ‘youth building peace’, LGBT human rights activist Appiah Kwadwo explains how Concern Youth Association in Ghana are building peace amid violence against the LGBT community. Q: What is the situation in Ghana surrounding human rights for the LGBT… Read more »

Two men were arrested, forced to pose naked and publicly humiliated because they had gay sex

Two men were arrested and forced to pose naked after they were caught having sex in a Ghana hotel. According to reports in local media, two men aged 18 and 28 were arrested over the incident in a Accra hotel. The pair were discovered by a receptionist who reportedly barged into their private hotel room… Read more »

One Dead In ‘St. Paul’s Senior High School’s’ Riot

Students of St. Paul’s Senior High School (SHS) in Denu have been asked to go home following a rampage that left a student dead and several others injured. The students were reportedly protesting against attempts by the Police to protect their colleagues whom they accused of sodomy. A teacher at the school said the students… Read more »

How 2 Gay Men Live in a Country Where Homosexuality Is Illegal

Two young men bravely share their experience as homosexuals in Ghana Some 37 African countries criminalize homosexual relationships, with penalties ranging from misdemeanors to death sentences, according to a Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Human Rights First report released Tuesday. The report, which analyzed LGBT rights in 54 African countries in total, paints a picture… Read more »

Ghana Needs A Clear Policy On Homosexuality – MP

The Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin is urging government to declare its position on homosexuality. He made this point after Health Minister; Sherry Ayittey read a statement on the floor of Parliament on healthy living. Although some Legislators suggested a different platform for the discussion of the matter, Mr. Afenyo-Markin insisted that a… Read more »

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh: Gays are ‘vermin’ and should be treated worse than mosquitoes

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has referred to gay people as “vermin”, saying they should be dealt with in the same way as mosquitoes which “cause” malaria. President Jammeh made the comments on Tuesday. He has in the past referred to gays as a threat to humanity, saying a year ago that gay rights were a… Read more »

Ghana tops gay list in Africa Email thisShare This

(From: The Independent Newspaper) Ghana has been named as the African country with the most registered homosexual ‘hopefuls’ seeking expatriate partners. This is according to an online website that is ripe with homosexual information. A statement on accraexpats.com by a contributor, Andy S, stated that though Ghana was not an African gay paradise, there may… Read more »

Leading Ghana cleric: gay people are ‘Satan’s deadly agenda’

The head of Ghana’s Presbyterian Church, Emmanuel Martey, alleged that gays are plotting to have the country ‘destroyed’ by infiltrating its government The head of Ghana’s Presbyterian Church, Emmanuel Martey, alleged that gays are plotting to have the country ‘destroyed’ by infiltrating its government Emmanuel Martey, head of Ghana’s Presbyterian Church said that gays form… Read more »

Two Ghana schools expel 53 students for being gay

Leading Ghanaian high schools kick out pupils, claiming they formed a society and were recruiting others into being gay Fifty three students have been expelled from two of the leading high schools in Ghana for being gay. The events have erupted into an anti-gay media frenzy in Ghana. Ninteen pupils at Opoku Ware Secondary High… Read more »

Ghana and Africa must learn to respect LGBT rights

Instead of running anti-gay hate campaigns, Ghana and Africa should tolerate and respect sexual diversity which is inherent to its culture and traditions Following Ghana´s electoral campaign riddled with anti-gay hate, Prince K. MacDonald, a leading Human and LGBT rights advocate in the country, writing under a pseudonym, outlines a critical response. Homosexuality is not… Read more »

Turning the Tide: Increasing Access to HIV Prevention and Care for Men Who Have Sex with Men in Ghana

A Q&A with Kim Green, Deputy Country Director for Ghana, FHI 360 According to the most recent Lancet issue, even though men who have sex with men (MSM) bear a disproportionate burden of HIV, they continue to be excluded from HIV services because of stigma, discrimination and criminalization. One of the primary challenges to reducing… Read more »

US Ambassador revives gay debate; wants respectful dialogue

Outgoing US Ambassador to Ghana, Donald Teitelbaum says the country needs an open respectful dialogue on the issue of gay rights. The subject attracted a lot of controversy when some Western governments suggested African countries such as Ghana may have to review their stance on homosexuality if they are to enjoy continued economic support. However,… Read more »

Rumors Ghana’s new vice president is gay spark moral panic

Unproven allegations that new vice president of Ghana, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is gay have been circulating creating a moral panic in the country A political scandal has been rocking Ghana in the last two weeks with allegations circulating in the local media that the newly sworn vice president, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is gay. The Ghananian… Read more »

Ghana Supreme Court to rule on gay rights

Ghana has adopted a recommendation by a constitutional review commission to rule on legalizing same-sex acts The Constitution Review Commission (CRC) of Ghana has recommended the country’s Supreme Court should rule on whether the country should legalise same-sex acts. The suggestion was adopted by the country’s government earlier this week (16 July). Under Ghanaian law,… Read more »

Ghanaina Activist Defends Gay Community Against Charges Of “Recruiting”

Mac-Darling Cobbinah a Ghanaian HIV activist and human rights defender last week attacked as “misleading” the methodology of a 2011 study of MSM in Ghana which accused gay men of recruiting heterosexual men for sex. In an article entitled “Gays recruiting for MSM study?” which he distributed to activists across Africa, Cobbinah said the authors… Read more »

Ghana’s education ministry “optimistic” it can stop homosexuality

A spokesman for Ghana’s Education Ministry has told the Accra Mail he is confident a programme in which teachers warn students of the “adverse consequences” of being gay will make it “a thing of the past”. Paul Krampah, a Public Relations Officer, said his department’s HIV/AIDS Secretariat had been training teachers to educate students on… Read more »

Education Ministry fights homosexuality in schools

The Ministry of Education is optimistic homosexuality in the country’s Junior and Senior High Schools will soon be a thing of the past. Ahead of World AIDS day which falls on December 1, Paul Krampah, the Ministry’s Public Relations Officer, in an interview with Xfm 95.1 said the Ministry’s HIV/AIDS Secretariat has trained teachers who… Read more »

Lesbian/Gay issues in schools; Education Ministry steps in

The Ministry of Education’s Public Relations Officer, Paul Krampah has said that the Ministry’s HIV/AIDS Secretariat has trained teachers to educate students homosexuality and its “adverse consequences” including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. According to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVSSU) of the Ghana Police Service, more teenage boys in Junior High… Read more »

Decriminalising sexual orientation: Three African states compared

At the beginning of 2011, 36 states in Africa criminalised sexual orientation, with penalties ranging from fines in Algeria and Kenya, to the death penalty in Sudan and Nigeria. The ‘criminalisation of sexual orientation’ is a blanket term that refers to criminal sanctions imposed on individuals that engage in adult same-sex conduct, which in turn… Read more »

Gay Ghana &Reports 2011

Useful websites for LGBT Africa Gay Ghana web sites Personals web site with many Ghana postings 1 LGBT Africans Face Blackmail and Extortion on a Regular Basis 2/11 2 Gay Couple Wed in Kumasi, Ghana 5/11 3 BNI investigates homosexuality in Western, Central regions 6/11 4 LGBTI Persons in Ghana Have the Right to Health… Read more »

Gay Ghana News & Reports 2007-10

Useful websites for LGBT Africa Gay Ghana web sites Personals web site with many Ghana postings   1 Ghana’s secret gay community 3/07 2 Ghana: Anglicans Flay Gay Bishops 7/07 3 British man in prison for gay sex in Ghana 11/07 4 The Truth About Gay Guys 1/08 5 A Muslim Woman Treads the Thorny… Read more »

Gay Ghana News & Reports 2000-06

Useful websites for LGBT Africa: http://www.mask.org.za/ Gay Ghana web site: http://www.gayghana.org Personals web site with many Ghana postings: http://www.gayuniverse.com/profiles/g_misc.html 1 A peek into the gay Ghanaian closet 7/03 2 Rule: Gays be silent: Discrimination is alive and well south of the Sahara 11/03 3 Ghana–ready for gay rights? 5/04 4 Interactive theatre exposes attitudes in… Read more »