Pride Around the World
Legal and Social Context The socio-political and legal environment in Ghana has been marked by homophobia since the enactment of the Criminal Offences Act of 1960. Over the years, this atmosphere has become increasingly hostile against persons of non-conforming sexual orientations and gender identities or expressions. Fundamentalists’ efforts to clamp down on human rights have led to targeted attacks against LGBTIQ persons, activists, and organizations in Ghana. Human Rights Watch reported in 2018 that queer Ghanaians “suffer widespread discrimination and abuse both in public and in family settings.”139 The political atmosphere took a turn for the worse in 2019, after the World Congress of Families, a right-wing anti-LGBTQ group based in the US, held its regional conference there.140 It worsened further in 2021, when Parliament introduced the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill. This Bill criminalizes LGBTIQ identities and organizations, and, if passed, would provide government support to conversion practices aimed at changing people’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In light of this, LGBTIQ organizations in Ghana cannot organize public Pride events as they would prefer. The activists we spoke to cited additional reasons why Pride events are either private or re-adapted. One activist who heads a large LGBTIQ organization told OutRight, “We’ve not done the open and public ones because of the security issues and the risks it will bring.”141 Another veteran activist agreed, citing the challenges to such events to be the widespread stigma against sexual and gender diversity, discrimination, and security reasons. This activist reported that they would not be able to get permission from the police to host an event known to be an LGBTIQ event.142 These fears are not misplaced.
139 “Ghana: Discrimination, Violence Against LGBT People,” Human Rights Watch news release, 8 January 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/01/08/ghana-discriminationviolence-against-lgbt-people (accessed 26 May 2018). 140 David McKenzie and Nimi Princewell, “How a US Group with Links to the Far-Right May Have Influenced a Crackdown on Ghana’s LGBTQ Community,” CNN, 8 October 2021, https:// www.cnn.com/2021/10/08/africa/ghana-lgbtq-crackdown-intl-cmd/index.html (accessed 17 June 2022). 141 OutRight interview with Joshua O. (pseudonym), Accra, 24 January 2022. 142 OutRight interview with James I. (pseudonym), virtual, 14 April 2022.
GHANA
Ghana: Pride Deferred
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