Anti-LGBTQI Bill: What now?

As reported on the front page of the Daily Graphic on February 28, 2025, the government is liaising with the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to reintroduce a bill to replace the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, commonly referred to as the “Anti-LGBTQI Bill”. 

Addressing the “Fellowship with the Clergy ceremony” at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), President Mahama said any new bill would be a government-sponsored not a private members’ bill. His announcement came a year after an earlier version of the bill was passed by Parliament on February 28, 2024.

President Mahama is no doubt aware of repeated sniping from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) that he does not want to sign an anti-LGBTQI bill into law.

After all, this is exactly what a group of National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs, led by Sam Nartey George, Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation, did during the Akufo-Addo presidency: constantly accuse the then President of double standards for refusing to sign the bill into law.

What will happen now? President Mahama indicated at the recent AICC meeting that he wanted widespread consultation before introducing another version of the bill.

This is because, he stated, his “leadership should be a reflection of the people that I govern.”

He added, “I do think that we should have a conversation on it again so that all of us if we decide to move that bill forward, move it forward with a consensus.”

Unpacking

This is an important point and one that requires unpacking. It will be recalled that the February 28, 2024 bill was passed unanimously by Parliament.

This appears to indicate that all 275 MPs wanted to see the anti-LGBTQI bill become law.

On the other hand, such was the climate of vituperation around the whole LGBTQI rights issue that by the time of the vote on the bill, it is unlikely that any MP would have been brave enough publicly not to support the bill by voting against it.

If they had done this in the run-up to the December elections, there would have been plenty of people willing to shout that such MPs were ‘pro-gay’ and thus in the opinion of the shouters did not accurately reflect the sentiments of Ghana’s people.

Pro-bill advocates stated that the bill was the will of the Ghanaian people and thus should be passed promptly. 

It is not clear on what evidence such claims were based.

I saw only one opinion poll taken on the anti-LGBTQI bill by Global InfoAnalytics, reported by Emmanuel Kwarteng of 3News on April 5, 2024.

Global InfoAnalytics data indicate that while a majority of Ghanaians questioned did indeed support the bill, the level of support was nowhere near 100 per cent and varied widely from region to region. 

In four regions – Upper West, Ashanti, Ahafo and North East – there was more opposition to the bill than support for it.

In three other regions – Eastern, Bono East, Upper East – support for the bill was a little over 50 per cent, while in the latter region, there was a high proportion of ‘don’t knows’ (28 per cent) when people were asked if they supported the bill. 

Clearly, there was nothing like total support among Ghanaians for the first version of the bill.

If President Mahama is serious about consultation, then there needs to be a national conversation, perhaps a referendum on whether (a) such a bill is necessary and (b) what form of bill, if any, is appropriate.

The first version of the anti-LGBTQI bill prescribed a three-year jail term for people who identify as gay and five to 10 years for promoters and advocates.

It was widely condemned by both local and international human rights groups, with some describing it as “draconian.”

Supporters of the bill claimed that the legislation would help preserve what they consider to be Ghanaian culture and family values.

Human rights groups, both in Ghana and internationally, saw things differently. According to Human Rights Watch researcher, Larissa Kojoué:

“The anti-LGBT rights bill is inconsistent with Ghana’s long-standing tradition of peace, tolerance and hospitality and flies in the face of the country’s international human rights obligations.”

Conclusion

Two things are clear: first, the clamour for a new anti-LGBTQI bill from some Ghanaians won’t stop and second, President Mahama’s government has work to do to come up with a bill that will get wide approval: from MPs, Ghanaian public opinion, national and international and human rights organisations.

To get to that point would require both deftness and a willingness, honestly and thoughtfully to listen to both sets of arguments, pro and anti. 

Ghana has had a law prohibiting gay sex for more than 60 years.

Why is another needed? What is the justification for making such a law more draconian than the existing one?

Some of the bill’s supporters appear to believe that gays can be “cured”, even though there is no scientific evidence to support this.

So, the logic appears to be: make penalties for gay sex even more punitive and this will persuade Ghana’s gay community to change their behaviour and live in a way that, according to the bill’s supporters, reflects Ghana’s culture and family values.

If this is indeed the aim, then I fear that they are mistaken.

The writer is an Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK. tsjhayn1@londonmet.ac.uk