‘We can’t give up on humanity’: Ghanaians fight antigay law

Alex Kofi Donkor is used to speaking out in support of Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community. For the past eight years, the activist has fearlessly led protests and panel discussions on gay rights. He has written blogs calling out homophobia and has lobbied lawmakers.

But now things feel very different. Since Ghana’s Parliament passed a bill in February that makes even identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer a crime, Mr. Donkor has been living in constant fear. Hanging over his head is the possibility that much of his previous work – from setting up pride billboards to speaking to journalists – will soon be punishable by a jail sentence if Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, signs the legislation into law. 

“This bill is simply criminalizing the existence of a queer person,” he says. 

“It’s an open door to violence,” adds Larissa Kojoué, an LGBT rights researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Anybody can talk to you badly, aggress you physically, morally, in so many ways because the law allows it.”

Ghana’s new law is the latest in a series of recent policy shifts across Africa that have chipped away at the rights of LGBTQ+ people. These laws are jeopardizing the freedoms and safety of an already vulnerable group of people, the laws’ opponents say. Still, activists and leaders are not letting the rollbacks happen in silence. In Ghana, for instance, activists have pushed for a presidential veto, and now, they’re challenging the law before the country’s Supreme Court. 

“Treated as criminals”

Consensual same-sex acts are already illegal in Ghana, but the new bill introduces fines of up to $4,700 and prison terms of up to three years for anyone who even identifies as LGBTQ+ or asserts a gender identity different from the one they were assigned at birth. It also criminalizes LGBTQ+ advocacy, and punishes people for failing to report the LGBTQ+ status of other people – including members of their own families – to the authorities. 

The law, officially called the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, dates back to mid-2021.

It emerged at a time when antigay sentiment was already building in Ghana. In February 2021, police raided the offices of an organization called LGBT+ Ghana, which Mr. Donkor had founded to help members of the LGBTQ+ community with food, clothing, access to therapy, job training, medical services, and even legal assistance, along with much-needed camaraderie.

The authorities later shut the group down.

During Pride month the next year, Mr. Donkor and fellow activists were horrified when crowds – encouraged by members of Parliament – tore down the billboards they had put up that read “Tolerance, Love and Acceptance.”

Government has “a mandate to protect every citizen,” Mr. Donkor says. But instead, LGBTQ+ activists are often arrested and “treated as criminals before we even get the opportunity to seek justice.” 

LGBT+ Ghana has since shrunk its scope of activities and gone offline to protect clients and staff. Mr. Donkor also takes care to keep himself safe: He doesn’t travel alone at night, and he makes sure that no one knows where he lives. But with the bill sitting on the president’s desk, protecting himself feels harder than ever. 

A rising tide

Ghana’s bill is the latest in a series of anti-LGBTQ+ laws that have entered the statute books across the continent in recent years. 

In 2023, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Tanzania, and Uganda all proposed or enacted laws or policies curtailing the rights of LGBTQ+ people. In total, more than 30 African countries criminalize homosexuality in some way. 

The momentum of recent antigay legislation in Africa has been fueled by religious organizations in the West. 

For instance, American Christian organizations such as Family Watch International – designated a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center – and the World Congress of Families have actively supported anti-LGBTQ+ legislation worldwide since the early 2000s. 

“Look at the kind of language that the U.S. Christian right has historically used in the United States,” says Haley McEwen, author of “The U.S. Christian Right and Pro-Family Politics in 21st Century Africa.” ”We’ve been able to see African political and religious leaders using that exact same language.” 

These organizations have funneled tens of millions of dollars into campaigns to roll back LGBTQ+ rights in African countries, created a caucus at the United Nations for the purpose of “thwarting the radical sexual rights agenda,” and built ties with influential legal groups like the African Bar Association. 

“You will see the same narrative again and again” – that homosexuality is a foreign import, says Ms. Kojoué from Human Rights Watch. “It’s paradoxical because most [antigay activism] relies on religious values” that originate in the Western world, she points out.

Family Watch International and the World Congress of Families did not respond to requests for comment.

For religious and cultural reasons, Ghana’s bill enjoys significant popular support. But activists and some Ghanaian political leaders are pushing back against the idea that homosexuality is “anti-African” and are urging the president to veto the bill. 

For instance, former parliamentarian Samia Yaba Nkruman, the daughter of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, has urged the president not to sign the law, and the Finance Ministry has also discreetly advised a veto, warning that Ghana could lose nearly $4 billion in funding from international financial institutions if the law passes. 

This month, Ghana’s Supreme Court began hearing arguments in two separate challenges to the law’s constitutionality. Mr. Akufo-Addo says he will await the court’s decision before deciding whether to sign the law. 

Mr. Donkor says despite these flickers of hope, he remains afraid. But he is not ready to stop fighting. 

“We cannot give up on ourselves; we can’t give up on humanity,” he says. “LGBTQ persons have existed since the beginning of time. ... We have contributed in diverse ways in our history as a people. We continue to exist and we are continuously going to exist.”