Ghana Anglican Church officially speaks out against country’s new anti-LGBTQ+ laws
Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith (Anglican Communion via Facebook)
The leader of Ghana’s Anglican Church has officially opposed harsher anti-LGBTQ+ laws that will soon be introduced in the West African country.
Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith spoke out against the impending laws last week while speaking to the BBC.
The Draconian law will make simply identifying as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella a criminal offence. The bill also criminalises the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities, and introduces a “duty to report” acts that go against the law. Anyone that identifies as an ally to the community can also face imprisonment.
Exemptions would be made for those who work in the legal, media and healthcare sectors that report on LGBTQ+ issues or provide medical treatment to the community.
President John Dramani Mahama has not yet signed the bill into law, but is currently under pressure from religious leaders to do so.
“Our point in our province is very clear: we do not support the criminalisation of gay persons,” Archbishop Ben-Smith said.
“The whole concept of… LGBT people, it’s not new here. They have lived in this country for a long time, and we’ve lived with them. They’ve never been a problem,” he continued.
Archbishop Ben-Smith went on to clarify that the Anglican Church in Ghana does not condone same-sex relationships, but that doesn’t mean that the government should criminalise them.
“We believe that God created male and female, so… we hold on to the traditional view,” he said. However, he added that LGBTQ+ people are still “all children of God” and that “God loves them”.
Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, who sponsored the bill, spoke at parliament on 29 May, saying that the new laws will protect the country’s cultural and family values, and make current anti-LGBTQ+ laws “more robust, more encompassing and more stringent in dealing with the practices of LGBTQI”.
Sexual relations between two men – termed “unnatural carnal knowledge” – has been illegal in Ghana since the British colonial times but the new law would impose a prison sentence for anyone simply identifying as LGBTQ+.
The bill has been widely criticised by international organisations. According to the BBC, the Human Rights Watch said that it places LGBTQ+ people’s lives at risk while “encouraging citizens to surveil and denounce one another,” and recommended that it be abandoned.
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