Gay community in swedru, ghana

Lawmakers heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling. The bill, which had the backing of Ghana's two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law. He previously said that he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to. Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana - it carries a three-year prison sentence.

Dressed in an all-black outfit, the young man in his late teens looks visibly terrified: "I am very worried anyone can snitch on me, even in my own neighbourhood. It's going to be very hard to live here. He has been living for some time with sympathetic friends in Ghana's capital, Accra, since falling out with his family. Mensah says when his mother discovered several years ago that he was attracted to boys, she started taking him to churches for prayers with the hope he would change.

IWPR — Institute for War and Peace Reporting Autor. In Ghana, the controversial Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which imposes severe penalties for same-sex relationships, has sparked increased discrimination and violence against the LGBTI community. Yet the authorities responsible for protecting LGBTI individuals from such violence often play a role in perpetuating it. The Ghana police service, for example, has been implicated in numerous cases of abuse and harassment targeting LGBTI Ghanaians.

Only men are criminalised under this law. The law was inherited from the British during the colonial period, in which the English criminal law was imposed upon Ghana. Ghana retained the provision in its first Criminal Code upon independence, which remains in force, and continues to criminalise same-sex sexual activity today. An anti-LGBT Bill which would further criminalise LGBT people has been passed by Parliament but will not become law until it receives Presidential assent.