According to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana does not currently have any laws that make the behaviour of LGBTQ+ people illegal.
Now before Parliament is the Appropriate Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.
The Bill suggests jail sentences for those who participate in same-sex activities as well as other measures to promote the LGBTQ+ community.
When US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Nana Addo at the Jubilee House on Monday, March 27, 2023, Nana Addo responded to a query by confirming that the bill is currently before Parliament and has not yet been adopted by the parliamentarians.
He said: “It hasn’t been passed, so the statement that there is legislation in Ghana to that effect is not accurate.
“Parliament is dealing with it and at the end of the process, I will come in.”
The anti-LGBTQ bill, titled, “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021”, was submitted to Parliament in June 2021.
The bill, among other things, aims to make it illegal to support LGBTQ+ rights or to identify as LGBTQ+. Offenders risk receiving jail time.
Section 6 of the LGBTQI+ bill, states that “a person commits an offence if the person holds out as any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”
However, the Bill exempts intersex people who “agree” to undergo sexual reassignment therapy in order to correct their “abnormality” in Sections 6(c), (f)(ii), and (g)(ii).
A significant public discussion about the bill’s propriety erupted when it was submitted to Parliament.
While some civil society organizations (CSOs) and other campaigners had opposed it on the grounds that it would violate the human rights of LGBTQ+ people in the country and expose them to persecution and violence, many religious organizations and like-minded institutions and individuals have expressed their full support for the bill to be passed into law.
