Ghana’s parliament has voted to pass a controversial bill to severely restrict LGBTQ rights, in a move that has been condemned by rights activists. A coalition of religious and traditional leaders sponsored the legislation that is favored by most lawmakers and that passed in parliament on February 28.
The bill would punish those who take part in LGBTQ sexual acts, as well as those who promote the rights of gay, lesbian, or other non-conventional sexual or gender identities with time in prison.
The bill, one of the harshest of its kind in Africa, still has to be validated by the president before entering into law, which observers believe is unlikely before a general election in December. Gay sex is already illegal in the religious West African nation, but while discrimination against LGBTQ people is common no one has ever been prosecuted under the colonial-era law.
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