O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

By Melanie Nathan, Feb 28, 2024.

Ghana has become the new skunk of the world! The Parliament of Ghana has passed new anti-LGBTQ law today, sending Ghana’s LGBTQI+ community into hiding, panic and flight. The Promotion of Proper Human Sexuality and Family Values Bill is Ghana’s equivalent to Uganda’s Kill the Gays Bill, and may actually be worse for some of its terms than Uganda’s recently passed law, even though it does not include life in prison or the death penalty. Worse in the sense of the identity clause.

This is because the Ghanaian law says that if a person simply identifies or quote “holds out” as being LGBTQ – or an ally, they will be subject to lengthy jail terms.

That means someone like me, Melanie Nathan, an open lesbian, or more famously Wanda Sykes, comedian, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Elliot Page, openly trans man, Chaz Bono, or U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as United States Senator Tammy Baldwin, to name but a few are all criminals subject to prison terms in Ghana from the moment the law takes effect. As for you reading this? You too!

Today, the motion for the third reading was moved and seconded – paving way for the passage of the Bill

Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ Bill seeks to jail LGBTQ+ identities and “related activities” (same-sex sexual activities, same-sex marriage, use of sex toys, crossdressing) 3 months to 3yrs. For allies, donors, activists, or promoters (including journalists) 3-5yrs. The final Act has many clauses and is robust in its criminalization and will be published on this page in an update as soon as we access the final version.

African Human Rights Coalition condemns in the strongest terms Ghana’s Parliament for passing the Promotion of Proper Human Sexuality and Family Values Bill, even amidst the complaints and enlightenment provided by the leader of the majority party, who correctly notes the constitutional flaws of the legislation. The draconian law is a grave threat to Ghanaians and all who enter the country to include tourists. It not only impedes the most fundamental rights of LGBTQ people and allies, and anyone perceived as such, but also creates immense physical danger given the violence it serves to license by state and non-state actors alike. The conditions in Ghana have been dangerous for LGBTQI people even prior to this law. It now becomes much worse. It is unconstitutional in that it shuts down freedom of speech, the right to privacy, and freedom of association and assembly. It further criminalizes donors, journalists and human rights defenders and their organizations.

While Rightify Ghana in its condemnation statement below urges the President of Ghana, Nan Akufo-Addo, to refuse to assent to the Bill, that will not stop it from becoming law. The way I understand the process that his refusal will be of no consequence for as long as there is a two third majority of Parliamentarians supporting its passage, and that number has been exceeded.

As a country conditions expert witness for Ghanaian asylum seekers who have fled to the U.S.A. due to the harsh anti-LGBT climate already prevalent in the country, I predict that many more Ghanaians will be forced to flee the country. Those who cannot qualify for visas to Canada, USA, or Europe, there are scant to zero pathways for escape. Forcibly displaced LGBTI people will be compelled to cross borders into neighboring countries to seek UNHCR protection under the Refugee Convention. However most surrounding countries also harbor anti-homosexuality laws and harsh country conditions, making asylum impossible with conditions in such hostile host countries equally dangerous for asylum seekers and refugees.

African Human Rights Coalition urges the US government to contemplate TPS and rapid humanitarian pathways for Ghana’s LGBTQI+ communities. Whereas the Ugandan Kill the Gays Bill is effectively as bad, it criminalizes behavior. This law is different to Uganda’s law due to the identity clause mentioned above.

It remains to be seen how the US and other western governments will react to this law in terms of visa denials, boycotts, withholding of aid and more sanctions. Unfortunately such often causes a backlash against the LGBT community themselves. It is important to follow what advocates and activists are requesting and at the same time to balance our values.

As a last word American Evangelicals, instigators of these laws are now slapping themselves on the back and jumping for joy. What a shame. Unfortunately this places a measure of accountable on all of us.

Recently the US State Department warned against travel to Ghana.

Aluta Continua,
Melanie Nathan.

SEE RIGHTIFY GHANA STATEMENT HERE.

TO LISTEN TO PARLIAMENTARIANS WHO SEEM TO THINK THIS IS A LAUGHING MATTER: FIBD LINK ON AHRC WEBPAGE HERE

By MELANIE NATHAN, ED African Human Rights Coalition,
EXPERT WITNESS FOR LGBT ASYLUM SEEKERS FROM ANGOLA, UGANDA,  GHANA, KENYA, ZIMBABWE, SENEGAL –
and other African Countries

commissionermnathan@gmail.com | nathan@africanHRC.org

SEE REFERENCES: HERE