President Akufo-Addo has emphatically made it clear that so long as he remained the leader of the country, homosexual marriages would not be legalized.
“For same-sex marriage to be legalised in Ghana, it will not happen in my time as President”, President Akufo-Addo at the St. Michael and All Angels Cathedral in Asante Mampong on Saturday, 27 February 2021, during the installation of the Second Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Ghana.
“I have said this before and let me, in conclusion, stress again that it will not be under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that same-sex marriage will be legalised in Ghana. It will never happen in my time as President”, he emphasised to applause from the congregation.
President Akufo-Addo’s statement follows recent public calls for the government to re-state Ghana’s position on same-sex marriage and the activities of persons who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender and Queer Intersex (LGBTQI) in Ghana.
In a similar stance on same-sex marriage, President J.E.A. Mills also declared during his era that Ghana was not going to endorse same-sex marriage.
President Akufo-Addo when he took over as President in 2017, gave a similar indication that he will never amend the laws of Ghana to allow for same-sex marriage.
On January 31, 2021, the European Union (EU) in Ghana participated in the opening of an office space for a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender and Queer Intersex (LGBTQI) rights group in Accra.
The group, LGBTQI+ Rights Ghana hosted a fundraiser to officially introduce and promote its office and community space.
Meanwhile, Mr Alex Kofi Donkor, Director, LGBT+ Rights Ghana, has said the LGBT+ community is not forcing itself on Ghanaians and has urged the country to stop hating its members.
“Forcing ourselves into a society? I don’t think so”, Mr Donkor said
According to him, “LGBTQ people are the ordinary Ghanaians, so, nobody is forcing anything on anyone”. “If anything at all”, he noted, “it is homophobia that is being projected, it is hate that is being projected at us and, so, for us, I believe that it is important for us to look at the hate, the homophobia, the discrimination that is being projected at us and then find a solution to this challenge”.
Opposition against moves by the LGBTQI community to establish a strong presence in Ghana gained a strong ground in the previous week particularly on social media.
Among key groups who opposed the move was the clergy, teacher unions and traditional leaders, all of whom posted strong positions against the notion that homosexuality is a rights issue.
Consequently, they urged the state to resist every attempt by the LGBTQI community to operate.
The National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, a group which advocates against the activities of the LGBTQI movement in Ghana called for the office to be shut down.
The Executive Secretary of the Coalition, Moses Foh-Amoaning said the existence of the office was illegal and an affront to the laws, traditions and customs of Ghana.
He insisted that Ghana as a country had not signed any international laws permitting the promotion of LGBTQI activities in the country therefore, any attempt by anyone to promote the activities of the group amounted to illegality.
Mr Foh-Amoaning noted that on the contrary, international laws such as the Economic, Cultural, Social and Political Rights of the United Nations treaty, which Ghana had ratified, protected the sovereignty of Ghana to defend its cultural values.
He accused the international community in Ghana for promoting an act which he said was alien to the customs and traditions of Ghanaians and infringed on the sovereignty of the state.
The police on Wednesday (Feb 24, 2021) with the support of the owner of the property closed down the said office of the LGBTQI group.
The owner of the five bedroom apartment, which was housing the group at Ashongman Estate in Accra said the tenant never explained to him that he was going to use it to promote LGBTQI activities in Ghana, hence his decision to terminate the tenancy agreement and refund the money to him.
He said the tenant told him he was going to use the place for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) activity in health and for him to convert the residential accommodation to a place or an office for LGBTQI activity clearly breaches the tenancy agreement.
