by Melanie Nathan, March 10, 2026
As Ghana is poised to pass its new Anti-Homosexuality law, disguised in its western imported shroud of so called “family values”
Ghana is set to host the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Anti-LGBTQ Conference on “Family, Sovereignty and Values” in Accra from May 27–30, 2026 — marking the first time the gathering will be held in West Africa.
Not only does the conference follow many months of engagement between Ghanaian lawmakers and Ugandan officials, including benchmarking visits shortly before Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill received its First Reading in February 2026, but seems to heed the call of President Yoweri Museveni for African leaders to “save the world from Homosexuality.”
In 2019, the US-based World Congress of Families held its African conference in Ghana. That same year, coordinated backlash against Comprehensive Sexuality Education forced the government to withdraw its policy. It was also no coincidence that alliances that formed during that time landed in the drafting and introduction of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill in 2021.
Both World Congress of Families and Family Watch International have been designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Rightify notes: “Observers warn that hosting the 2026 conference could deepen regional coordination of anti-LGBTQ laws, restrict sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and expand legislative efforts already seen in Uganda.”
Accra now stands at a critical moment with potential ripple effects across West Africa.
This is where Africa’s homophobic East meets Africa’s West – and rest assured countries like Guinea-Conakry, Senegal, The Gambia, Sierre Leone, and many others risk a tidal wave of transforming Colonial era Penal codes into harsh anti-Homosexuality legislation that moves away from criminalizing sex acts to actually criminalizing sexuality and people’s existence as LGBTQI+!
This is a scary time for Africa’s LGBTQI+ communities.
Where are the affirming Churches to counter extremist Evangelical influence in all this. Not to mention radical islam having its day too!
Pic: Credit Rightify Ghana
Melanie Nathan is an internationally recognized expert on LGBTQI+ asylum and refugee protection in Sub-Saharan Africa and has previously been qualified as an expert witness in U.S. Immigration Courts and other international legal proceedings. As Executive Director of the African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC), she has worked directly with LGBTQI+ asylum seekers facing persecution, denial of refugee registration, and forced displacement across multiple jurisdictions, including Uganda.
She provides expert country-conditions reports in support of asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) claims, including matters involving third-country removal and motions to pretermit.
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