APA-Accra (Ghana) Raising the question of LGBTQ+ has always been akin to stirring a hornet’s nest in Africa, where the subject elicits emotional extremeties among politicians, thought leaders and the African commonality.
When US vice-president Kamala Harris addressed hundreds of young people on the grounds of the Black Star square in Accra, Ghana on March 27th, she voiced her government’s unalloyed support for the LGBTQ+ community in Africa, the reaction to her words were immediate, swift and unequivocal from the country’s House Speaker, Alban Bagbin.
Harris couldn’t resist responding to the ring of urgency which attended to the introduction as law a ban on lesbians and gays in the East African nation of Uganda whose President Yoweri Museveni is one of the foremost campaigners against the practice on the continent, where he insists natural values must be protected lest they get corrupted by unnnatural ones.
There is a similar bill in the Ghanaian parliament.
Harris, US’ 49th vice president did not mince her words during a 27 March press conference when she made it clear that her country’s stance on LGBTQ+ was not just limited to Ghana but applies to the whole of the continent where attitude to such sexual orientations alternates from tacit opposition in some countries to downright violent hostility in others.
“This is an issue that we consider and I consider to be a human rights issue and that will not change,” she said with President Nana Akufo-Addo standing a few feet away.
Far from the diplomatic nicety which restrains a swift and forthright response while the US Number 2 was still in town, Speaker Bagbin shrugged off this inhibition and swung into action, slamming Harris for her apparently condescending air of self-rightousness while making it very clear that Ghana will not be intimidated by a major power.
He said forcing a nation like Ghana to embrace the practice was undemocratic and low-rates the values of Ghanaians and their country where LGBTQ+ will never be tolerated.
He said even Pope Francis had weighed in on the issue on the side of moral prudence and Ghana’s parliament will consider a bill outliwing the practice soon, pending a submission of a report on the issue.
MPs in Ghana are debating the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Value Bill – which outlaws the advocacy of gay rights as a criminal offence and proposes jail terms for LGBTQ offenders.
“That is creation and that is the spice of life. How come we are using that to divide ourselves? Please let the report flow. We need to legislate. Our friends, yes passed their law in Uganda. We did not go the way they have gone because our constitution is clear as to the direction we should move and so we will be guided by that” the Speaker said in his televised speech.
Meanwhile the battle for the soul of Africa continues as France’s Minister for International Partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou chose Accra to launch a campaign for the respect and protection of the rights of LGBTQ people.
Ms Zacharopoulou described LGBTQ rights as a core value and her advocacy would be centred around strengthening this belief across Africa.
Ms Zacharopoulou while on a three-day visit to Ghana says gay rights are a human rights issue everywhere.
South Africa and Cape Verde are among a handful of countries in Africa where LGBT is decriminalised.
The practice is not criminalised in a number of African countries including the two Congos, Benin, Rwanda, Mali, Madagascar and Ivory Coast among others.
WN/as/APA