Gays and Lesbians in Ghana Under Attack

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Wednesday, September 6 2006, 6:00AM

I've been reading a lot lately about the dire situation for gays and lesbians in the African country of Ghana. It's hard to know what to believe from the mainstream media reports, so I decided to ask someone who was close to the source. There may be no one in America who knows more about the situation for black gays and lesbians in Africa than Cary Alan Johnson. Cary has spent many years living and working on these issues in Africa and he now works for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York.

I met with Cary a few months ago and asked him to write something one day for this site, and this week he agreed to do so. Cary was the one who first taught me about the role of same-gender-loving men and women in Africa. He's written extensively about the topic and studied it closely. He was a primary source for my first book, One More River to Cross, in the discussion about homosexuality in precolonial Africa. Today Cary breaks down the situation in Ghana in his timely commentary below the jump.

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Gays and Lesbians in Ghana Under Attack

By Cary Alan Johnson

The LGBT community and its leadership in Ghana are under tremendous pressure right now, as they face a deluge of homo-hatred in the media.

On September 1, the government of Ghana issued a statement banning a lesbian and gay conference and instructing the Ministry of the Interior to locate and arrest the conferences local organizers. The Minster of Information, Kwamena Bartels, declared, "Government shall not permit the proposed conference anywhere in Ghana. Unnatural carnal knowledge is illegal under our criminal code. Homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality (sic) are therefore offences under the laws of Ghana."

Since then, newspapers and radio call-in shows in the West African nation have been obsessed with the topic of homosexuality and the purported conference. The sentiment has been overwhelmingly negative and, in some instances, violent. Community leaders have received threats and many are in fear of their lives.

Both the dates and the location for the conference are sketchy and no one in Ghana’s close-knit LGBT community knows anything about it. Many community members are wondering whether the conference isn’t a red herring, introduced by an unknown source to galvanize resentment against Ghana’s increasingly visible gay and lesbian community. The focus on the international aspects of the conference, which according to the government “would have brought gays and lesbians from all over the world to Ghana,” seems designed to pander to nationalist sentiment and reinforce notions of the “unAfricanness” of same-sex desire.

Banning the conference is a major attack on freedom of expression, association, and assembly. While "unnatural carnal knowledge" is still a crime in Ghana punishable by up to five years imprisonment, talking about "unnatural carnal knowledge" is not. Conferences provide important opportunities to debate and develop approaches to human rights and to HIV prevention, treatment, and care for lesbians and gay men and same-sex practicing people. Provisions for freedom of expression, association and assembly in the Ghanaian constitution and in the international human rights treaties to which Ghana is party protect the rights of citizens to engage in debate and advocacy, even if the issues they address are controversial ones.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is working closely with Ghanaian LGBT leadership to allow them to respond to this crisis and to help ensure their safety.

Cary Alan Johnson is Senior Coordinator for Africa at The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission . He can be reached at IGLHRC, cjohnson@iglhrc.org, 212.430.6053.

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Press Statement from Gay & Lesbian Association Of Ghana

The Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana [GALAG] feels compelled to issue this statement in the face of mounting misinformation being made public in both print and electronic media about an alleged two-day international gay conference, supposedly coming on in Accra International Conference Centre and in Koforidua, respectively. We wish to clarify several issues here:

1. The Gay & Lesbian Association of Ghana (GALAG) has never discussed, nor have we ever organised, an international Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender [LGBT] conference in Ghana. Since our Executive President appeared in some electronic media, this conference appears to have been the brainchild of someone’s vivid imagination. As an association, we are not prepared to organise such a conference anywhere in Ghana, let alone any part of the universe, at this point.

2. We have no hand in – nor the faintest clue about – any such conference to be organised by any group anywhere; neither do we know of – nor have we heard of – any such event. All we know is what is being peddled irresponsibly in the media, apparently oblivious to the journalistic ethical code which calls for confirming such a potentially controversial event with at least two or three reliable sources before putting it on air or in print media as truth.

3. GALAG is like any other non-governmental association representing a population which exercises its constitutional rights, votes in elections, pays our taxes, cares for our parents, children, siblings and other family members, working dutifully at our jobs and, therefore, contributing our fair share to national growth.

4. We wish to state categorically that GALAG does not promote homosexuality, but rather seeks the sexual well-being of same-gender-loving people, their families and friends, as well as the general population at large. LGBT individuals and their loved ones are frequently rejected and have no place to turn. GALAG tries to fill that void.

5. We work hard to promote the well-being and health of same-gender-loving people trying to survive in an otherwise hostile environment.

6. We have no clear estimate of the number of GLBT in Ghana, but initial studies here have shown that about half of Ghanaian men who have sex with other men are also having sex with women, creating a potential ‘crossover’ for HIV/STDs between the gay and heterosexual populations here. As for sheer numbers, it is safe to say that about 10% of the Ghanaian population – or approximately 2 million Ghanaians – have been involved in same-sex sexual relationships. During the past year, through brief research GALAG has participated in, nearly 2,000 of these have been identified in Accra and Tema alone. Each of these men & women contributes positively to Ghanaian life.

7. We have peer educators who do outreach in the LGBT community to educate vulnerable community members on such issues as safer sexual practices, accessing user-friendly health and social services, and generally to discuss their well-being. This is only necessary because many of them cannot receive the nurturing they deserve from their families, their churches, their mosques, their schools or other social institutions which so readily provide needed support to heterosexual individuals.

8. Homosexuality has been with humans from the beginning of time. Some of our brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers or other family members may be involved in same-gender-loving and need the same support we would easily offer them if they were heterosexual. Those who would quote the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud or any other such religious document need only remember that all religions of the world have a variation on: “judge not, lest ye be judged.” As for Leviticus and Corinthians, we need only look deeper to see that, as a culture, we are not willing to condone slavery, to stone women in red dresses, to reject men who shave their beards or people who eat shellfish, all of which are also in the Bible. So why should we single out this one population, LGBT, for our anger and hatred, based on scriptures? Hatred is not a good family value for our children to be taught.

9. Homosexuality touches every home, every work place, every church and every mosque in Ghana. We hope that all caring and intelligent Ghanaians would never be influenced or moved to hatred by lies from some unknown hate-mongering group or individuals trying to stir up controversy by fraudulently claiming to organize a gay conference in the name of this association.

10. Media personnel and the public need to be careful stereotyping homosexuality in the newspapers, on radio and TV. We have found lots of the comments and reactions to homosexuality to be weightless and prove the general public’s ignorance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals. We are everywhere – albeit many of us ‘closeted’ because of anti-gay sentiment, harassment and violence, when we should instead be protected by the constitution to be able to achieve our potential, like any other Ghanaian should.

Food for thought

1. How many Ghanaian mothers and fathers will kill their sons or daughters for being gay?
2. How many elders in the church or mosque will lay down their church or mosque roles because they are ‘gay’ or ‘bisexual’?
3. Let he or she who is without sin cast the first stone!! We know that God and Allah are for truth and compassion, while some men and women prefer to gossip, lie and breed hatred. We come out on the side of truth and compassion.

For further information, please feel free to contact us at either of the e-mail addresses listed here:

Gayghana@yahoo.com
ghanagay@yahoo.com

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