First Published here.
The Ghanaian Parliament introduced an extremely harsh ANTI-LGBTQI bill, THE PROMOTION OF PROPER HUMAN SEXUAL RIGHTS AND GHANAIAN FAMILY VALUES BILL OF 2021, which was sent to its Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee for work up. African Human Rights Coalition submitted an opposition based on the perspective of Ghanaian LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the United States.
This Bill was expected to impose some of the harshest laws against gay people and has now had, according to President Nana Akufo-Addo, a substantial modification.
Nana Akufo-Addo spoke about the controversial legislation during a joint press conference with the US Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Now, the Private Member Bill is out of Committee and is under a constitutional review by Parliament.
The original bill was understood to create some of the toughest anti-LGBT laws on the African continent, however. Mr Akufo-Addo appeared to reassure that the attorney general had stepped into redraft the bill and suggested its draconian stance had altered.
Perhaps they saw the light when faced with the extensive opposition from people such as the Special Independent Expert to the UN. African Human Rights Coalition and maybe some behind the scenes enlightening from VP Harris on her recent visit. Nonetheless whatever it may be , the mere fact of timing and the atmosphere of the call by Uganda’s President Museveni calling on African leaders for “Africa to rid the world of homosexuality”, lands Akufo-Addo squarely in the world of a perceivable genocide against Africa’s gays. All at the behest of the radical right wing American Evangelicals, who are trudging the continent, surreptitiously seeking an end to homosexuality.
PIC: Proof Positive – Sharon Slater, President of FAMILY WATCH INTERNATIONAL attending the REGIONAL Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Uganda, themed for American export of homophobia.
GHANAIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN SAYS ANTI-GAY LAW DIFFICULT TO ENFORCE WHILE IGNORING WHAT
IT LICENSES
By Melanie Nathan, April 07, 2023.
The Ghanaian Parliament introduced an extremely harsh ANTI-LGBTQI bill, THE PROMOTION OF PROPER HUMAN SEXUAL RIGHTS AND GHANAIAN FAMILY VALUES BILL OF 2021, which was sent to its Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee for work up.
Now the Chairman of that very committee, Kwame Anyimadu Antwi, MP for Asante Akin Central, who has marked it up and referred it back to Parliament for Amendment and debate and likely passage, is saying he does not think the laws can be enforced even if it becomes law.
This is more than cowardly. This is dangerous. It is these laws, whether enforceable, enforced or not, that serve to license the discrimination, persecution and violence that follows passage. As a country conditions expert, testifying in the U.S. courts and hearing the actual stories of lived experience of those fleeing, seeking protection and asylum abroad reflects that the laws that exist and the new laws, be it Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, are barely utilized other than to license blackmail by state and non state actor, beatings, mob and vigilante justice and all that goes with it. These laws are dangerous. Whether enforced or not.
I personally sent in an opposition to that Parliamentary committee making this very point!
Melanie Nathan
Nathan@AfricanHRC.org
O-blog-dee-o-blog-da 
Right wing Americans supporting anti-human rights in Uganda and Ghana will result in violence and killings.