‘We are resilient’: Ghana’s LGBT+ community celebrates Pride month amid repression

“I do not feel like a man but my fury has no gender,” writes Ivy Zeini, in a poem titled Girl.

“On their first date, Kwame asked Booker which Chinua Achebe book he related the most with, and Booker choked on his Malta Guinness,” opens Benjamin Cyril Arthur’s short story.

“When I think of queerness, I seldom envision a genital meet and greet. Friendship, love, intimacy, romance are all melded into one singular concept of bonding,” writes Poetyk Prynx in On the Cusp of Liberation: Act One and Two.

Their writing is part of a 69-page anthology of art, essays, prose and poems published by the organisation LGBT+ Rights Ghana to mark Pride month, even as those celebrating wait to see if a new, highly punishing Bill will be passed into law in the west African country.

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“We are actually proud that we did it: to know that no matter how difficult or how hostile the political climate is, we are still here to stay,” said Ed Hanson, the communications head for organisation LGBT+ Rights Ghana, about its publication.

Pride month this year has been “a bit under the radar”, he explained. “Normally we would have loved to have a Pride parade and, you know, showcase what we can do as queer people in Ghana. But then, with the passing of the Bill recently, we have been forced into hiding.”

A version of the legislation, titled the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, was first introduced in 2021. It was approved by parliamentarians in February 2024, though it is facing legal challenges and has yet to be signed into law by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Under the Bill, people convicted of identifying as LGBT+ in the country of roughly 35 million could be imprisoned for between two months and three years. It would also criminalise individuals and organisations advocating for their rights, with those who share information “for the purposes of promoting an activity prohibited” or “aimed at changing public opinion towards an act prohibited” liable to between five and 10 years in prison, and those who sponsor or fund activities liable to sentences of between three and five years.

Fewer people came to in-person Pride events this year than in the past, Hanson said. Attendees were protected by a set of security measures, including that everyone must RSVP and have their names screened, while locations were confirmed last minute. Organisers were tasked with identifying “queer-friendly spaces”, sometimes away from urban areas, where people could hike or play sports and games; listen to music; eat, drink or chat together; and generally just be comfortable.

[ Ghana passes bill that seeks to imprison LGBTQ people for up to three years ]

Other efforts went online. Through its social media pages, LGBT+ Rights Ghana hosted “colour dialogues”: public discussions around issues such as mental and physical health; dating; different identities; community organising; and assessing queer representation in the media. If anything positive has come from the Bill, Hanson said, it is that “it has brought the community more so together. It has made the community more alert. It has made us, you know, find new ways of doing things.”

Across much of Africa, conservative religious and political voices paint homosexuality and queerness as “un-African”, saying it is imported from the West, even as much of the push against LGBT+ people on the continent comes from western evangelical churches and religious groups. In many African countries, such as Ghana, initial laws interpreted as criminalising same-sex relations were adopted from those introduced by European countries during colonisation.

Parliamentarians in Ghana have said the more recent anti-homosexuality Bill was drafted in response to Hanson’s organisation, LGBT+ Rights Ghana, opening a community centre and safe space in capital city Accra in early 2021. The centre was quickly shut down by police.

This is an election year in Ghana, with both parliamentary and presidential elections set for December. Akufo-Addo, who has served two terms, is not allowed to run again.

In March this year, Samia Nkrumah, the daughter of Ghana’s first ever president, Kwame Nkrumah, called the new Bill “brutal, harsh and unjust” and urged Akufo-Addo to veto it.

Ghana – which has been suffering from an economic crisis – could also suffer major economic repercussions if the Bill is signed into law. The country requested International Monetary Fund relief in mid 2022, and Ghana’s finance ministry has warned the Bill could put that programme in danger and cause it to lose $3.8 billion in World Bank financing, due to anti-discrimination policies.

When asked about the Bill, both the World Bank and the IMF pointed out that it has not yet become law, with a World Bank spokesperson saying that it does not comment on draft legislation and an IMF spokesperson saying “it is important to let [the legal] process play out”.

In the meantime, Hanson said LGBT+ rights activists in Ghana are keen to collaborate and consult “the international community ... especially the queer-led organisations and people of good will”, though he wanted to emphasise that it is important that people speaking out abroad consult those on the ground first.

Irish people who want to help could “put out statements” about the Bill, or donate to support LGBT+ Rights Ghana and other Ghanaian organisations, he said.

Over the past few years, a crowdfunding page for LGBT+ Rights Ghana, aiming to support LGBT+ people across the country, raised nearly €65,000 of a requested €93,000 amount. The appeal notes that individual needs differ from person to person based on “their culture, environment, educational level, [and] social status, amongst others”. In realising “safe and inclusive Ghanaian societies where the LGBTQ+ person can live up to their full potential”, it says there is a need for “an even bigger and long-lasting vision that will be inclusive of the general Ghanaian populace”.

One consequence of new anti-LGBT+ legislation even being discussed or threatened is an increase in blackmail and extortion.

Hanson’s organisation has publicly made available a list of “blackmailers” who target LGBT+ people, sometimes posing as love interests online.

Despite the uncertainty and ongoing challenges, Hanson said he felt some joy with how Pride month had gone. “What is the most important to highlight is the fact that we are a resilient set of people,” he said. “[We are] working tirelessly to make sure our voices are heard, to make sure that we counter the prejudices and the abuses that we face every day here in Ghana as queer people ... The queer community in Ghana is a very united community. We would not allow anyone to come between us.”

He said people find solace being in a community, “and that is just what we want. Even if the government is trying to ostracise us and separate us and make us feel like you are less than a human, we still have found ways of making people feel like they matter and they belong and they feel loved and cherished.”

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