DAY 436 | Ghana Parliament Approves Bill Criminalizing LGBT
Parliament Of Ghana Approves Bill Criminalizing Consensual Same-Sex Relationships
The Parliament of Ghana has approved a bill that would criminalize identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The legislation now awaits ratification by President John Dramani Mahama. The proposed law goes further than the country’s existing colonial-era ban on same-sex relationships.
The Parliament of Ghana has approved a bill that would criminalize identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The legislation now awaits ratification by President John Dramani Mahama. The proposed law goes further than the country’s existing colonial-era ban on same-sex relationships.
The bill approved by Parliament actually implements a tiered penalty system. While engaging in same-sex intercourse or public displays of affection carries up to 3 years of imprisonment, the bill imposes far harsher penalties of 6 to 10 years in prison for anyone who promotes, sponsors, advocates, or distributes material related to LGBT activities.
It also requires citizens to report suspected prohibited acts to the police, extending enforcement into private relationships and personal associations. Allies face potential punishment as well, although legal, media, and healthcare professionals are exempted when reporting on LGBT issues or providing services.
Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the member of parliament who sponsored the bill, stated that the measure protects Ghanaian family and cultural values. He described the new provisions as making existing laws more robust, encompassing, and stringent in addressing LGBT practices. Rights groups have criticized the bill, warning that it endangers the lives of LGBT people by encouraging surveillance and denunciation among citizens.
President Mahama now holds the decisive power to sign the bill into law or allow it to stall. Since taking office, Maham has faced pressure from religious leaders to strengthen anti-gay measures. He has publicly affirmed his belief that only two genders exist, man and woman, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. This latest parliamentary vote revives a similar 2024 bill that passed but ultimately did not become law after the previous president withheld his signature amid legal challenges.
Alternately, the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance explicitly warned that enacting this legislation jeopardizes billions of dollars in international financing, including an estimated $3.8 billion in World Bank funding over five to six years.
This development in Ghana reflects a wider pattern across Africa. Roughly 31 to 32 out of the continent’s 54 countries currently criminalize homosexuality, with penalties and enforcement varying significantly by region.
Northern Africa maintains strict laws often rooted in morality provisions and Islamic traditions, where countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and others penalize same-sex acts through fines, imprisonment, or broader public order statutes.
Western Africa shows a recent trend toward tighter restrictions, including Ghana’s identity-focused bill, and Senegal's National Assembly adopted an amendment to Article 319 of its Penal Code on March 11, 2026 (signed into law on March 27, 2026), which officially doubled the maximum penalty for consensual same-sex acts to 10 years' imprisonment and criminalized promotion and funding. Parts of Nigeria, particularly northern states governed by Sharia law, impose the death penalty for same-sex acts.
Eastern Africa includes some of the harshest measures. Uganda’s 2023 law allows the death penalty for aggravated cases, while several neighboring countries retain long prison terms. Central Africa largely follows colonial-era criminalization with active enforcement in places such as Cameroon.
In contrast, Southern Africa stands apart as the most progressive region. South Africa prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution, recognizes same-sex marriage, and provides strong legal protections. Several other southern nations, including Botswana, Mozambique, and Angola, have decriminalized same-sex acts in recent years.
Islam, particularly through the application of Sharia law in Muslim-majority countries or regions, remains a significant driver of the most severe penalties, including corporal and capital punishment in jurisdictions such as Mauritania, northern Nigeria, and parts of Somalia. While the death penalty for consensual same-sex acts exists or is possible in a limited number of places, actual executions remain relatively rare.
This growing tendency toward stricter criminalization and broader enforcement across much of the continent signals a difficult and somber future for LGBT communities in Africa. Individuals face heightened risks of legal persecution, social ostracism, family rejection, and violence. These conditions are expected to accelerate migration from African countries to Western nations, where legal safeguards and greater social acceptance provide safer environments for those seeking refuge.
As Ghana’s bill awaits President Mahama’s decision, the outcome will further shape both the domestic landscape and the broader regional trajectory on LGBT rights.
Source: DPN, News outlets, Staff, AI, May 29, 2026
Disclaimer
No copyright infringement is intended. I do not own nor claim to own the rights to the above content. If you are the rightful owner of material (photos, videos, artwork, products) posted to this nonprofit blog and want it removed or credited, please contact me at mynarrowcorner@gmail.com, and your material will be promptly removed or credited.
Right-wing Christians are also part of the anti-LGBT push in Africa. From The Guardian:
ReplyDelete"There is also evidence that rightwing groups outside the continent are trying to influence politics across Africa. The Institute for Journalism and Social Change found that 17 US so-called Christian rights groups known for anti-gender campaigning spent $5.2m in Africa in 2022, up 47% from 2019. This includes the Heritage Foundation, a prominent rightwing thinktank, which reported spending $8,000 in the continent over the four-year period without detailing where or to whom the money was allocated. The analysis also looked at groups such as the Fellowship Foundation, which has funded events attended by Uganda’s Museveni, such as a 2023 speech by US representative Tim Walberg, who urged Uganda to “stand firm” on anti-LGBTQ legislation.
"Next month in Accra, Ghana will host the fourth African inter-parliamentary conference on family and sovereignty, a platform with documented links to US-based far-right advocacy groups. Previous editions have featured speakers who promoted Uganda’s anti-homosexuality act as a model for other African legislation."
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/apr/08/the-long-wave-anti-lgbtq-laws-africa-homosexuality-discrimination
The Guardian has become a woke news outlet on par with The New York Times or Le Monde and is no longer a reliable source of information.
DeleteSo you think right-wing Christians have played no part in the spread of anti-gay laws in Africa? Especially in East Africa? Especially in majority-Christian countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya? Sounds to me like you are just trying to ignore the evidence that anyone besides Islamicists are actively anti-gay.
DeleteTo my knowledge, right-wing Christians don’t throw gay people off rooftops with crowds cheering below. They don’t hang them from cranes in public while thousands film it on their phones either. I’ll admit right-wing Christians can be a real pain in the ass with their pushy evangelism and holier-than-thou attitude. But I went to college in the US and never once felt threatened by them—not even the right-wing ones. Mormons can send twink missionaries to ring my bell any time they like.
Delete