Ghana Anti-Homosexuality Bill, What does it say?

I am a Ugandan.., one of the lessons I have learnt with my country’s endless debates about my poor, personal sexuality is that details and specifics are important. Boring but important. Partly because I have to expect a lot of parsing, and frank lies, in the debate about homosexuality.
Not from me…, which is the whole problem. I expect the nasty, dirty, bad and evil homosexual to lie. Not the Saints of Anti-Homosexuality in Holy Africa.
But, I digress.

The anti-homosexuality bill in Ghana’s Parliament is a Private Member’s Bill that was introduced by Member of Parliament Sam Nartey George in 2022. Ghanaians being very proper people, the proper name for the bill is:

 

““Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2022””

 

The aims of this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation are not hidden…, if they are, it is in plain sight. Same sex intercourse is already criminalised in Ghana. So, this is ‘enhancement’ of the criminalisation sought. Here is a proper summary picked from a Ghanaian publication

 

 “The bill, when passed into law, seeks to provide a proper framework to sanitizing the Ghanaian society of the practices and ills of the LGBTQ+ community.”

and specifically

“aims to criminalize LGBTQ+ activities, prohibit the promotion or advocacy of such activities, and ensure the protection and support of children and individuals affected by LGBTQ+ issues.”

 

July 5^th, 2023 was the 2^nd reading of the Bill. And apparently amendments were made and accepted to the original. The amendments were approved to the original text unanimously.

 

““.., approved by all 275 lawmakers (present) on Wednesday after months of public debate and revisions to the 36-page document, introduced in 2021.””

 

The bill needs a third reading, and then accent by the President of the Republic to become the law of Ghana as reported here.

 

 “For it to come into force, it must still pass at least a third reading in the House and be signed into law by Ghanaian President”

 

So, what details, what does this newer anti-homosexuality legislation in Ghana say should be done?
I don’t have the text, so I had the pick of articles available, and remember, this was the second reading, not the final bill assented to by the Parliament of Ghana.

Details, details please;

·         Identity is criminalised.., I remember that was also in the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 in Uganda. To identify as homosexual is criminalised…!

“.., amendment to an anti-gay bill that would make identifying as LGBT punishable by a three-year prison sentence. “

·         Advocacy is criminalised. Why do the evil homosexuals need any sort of advocacy? This should be the dreaded ‘promotion of homosexuality’. Would be quite interesting to read the text.

“People who campaign for LGBT rights could also face up to 10 years in jail.”

 

·         Conversion therapy is in…, poor gay Ghanaians.

““… also validates "conversion therapy"”

 

And more to come.

·         criminalizes any form of LGBTIQ+ activism or support, as well as the dissemination of information.

·         It will punish homosexuals with a three-year prison sentence for identifying as such,
while LGBTQI+ rights advocates would face up to ten years in prison.

·         limits the provision of health services to this community, such as medication to treat HIV.

·         The proposed law encourages citizens to report neighbors who engage in homosexual relations to the authorities.

 

That is a quite substantive laundry list of demands of the law… Poor Ghanaian Kuchus, indeed.
I have also seen reference to this weird, more than weird provision.

 

“Moreover, the bill seeks to withdraw health services from this community, including HIV medication.”

 

That would be interesting. Ghanaians would rather have HIV spread rampart than have LGBTQ+ Ghanaians getting prevention, treatment and care?

Weird indeed.
But there are Ugandans, prominent and virulent anti-gay activists who would rather have had no HIV/AIDS aid from the US, if that was to be balanced against their anti-homosexuality bill. Of course it is more than likely those were not amongst the 1,2 Million Ugandans living with HIV. Anti-gay advocates are really fanatical about their demands.

 

gug

Study Finds Shrinks Still try to “Cure” Gays

Of course the study was not in Africa... Sniff. In Africa, homosexuals are supposed to be cured.

ex-gay therapy. Conversion treatment. 

Why the interest? Scott Lively mercifully offered ‘gay cures’ to Ugandan gays, in place of life imprisonment. He seemed very ‘rational’ to Ugandans. He has a cure for homosexuality. And he was pedalling it, in his best selling books. But does his cure work?

Well, first remember that the World Health Organisation says homosexuality is no disease or disorder. Remember that this is since 1994. It has been removed from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual 4 and the International Classification of Disease- 10. (I am showing off, of course!)

Also remember that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, and his medic Health Minister believed that HIV was not the cause of AIDS. And that beetroot and garlic could cure AIDS.

What is the commonality in all this?

Scott Lively, like Thabo Mbeki and his Health Minister are a fringe group that believes a different version of the truth. Their own truth. Scientific and popular proofs may show something else. Indeed, they show an opposite point of view. But for some reason, these people BELIEVE, and their belief triumphs everything else.

Scott Lively would never have been able to sell his belief in his own country. USA. But in poor Uganda, he sold it as truth. As fact. Reality.

And of course when I protest that that is not truth, he flings back at me; I am of a reprobate mind, a homosexual so mired in sin that I don’t want to change.

Well, here is some peer reviewed material. If you dare whine that it is not ‘African’ I will dare you not to take any ‘western medicine’ for your next bout of malaria. Not even a panadol. Okay? It is not African after all. We will be quits, you and I.

 

gug

 

March 26, 2009

(ChattahBox)—A study just published today by BMC Psychiatry, an open access journal for mental health professionals, based in the UK, disturbingly found that a significant minority of practicing psychiatrists and therapists still try to “cure” their homosexuals patients.

Researchers from the University College of London and St George’s, University of London, snail-mailed out questionnaires to over 1,400 mental health professionals, posing the question; of whether they would attempt to change a client’s sexual orientation if requested. A surprising 17 percent admitted to trying to “treat” homosexuality with therapy, despite the mental health profession finding such treatments ineffective and substantially harmful.

In response to the significant number of health professionals treating gay patients as if they have a disease that can be cured with therapy, the researchers launched a new website to chronicle the stories of gay patients who have been subjected to this quackery. Many of therapists who attempted to cure gay patients had negative feelings towards homosexuality, thinking it perverse and against God.

In other words, some health professionals are using discredited therapies that are widely known to hurt rather than help their patients. They are breaking their medical oaths of “do no harm,” because of their own religious or cultural feelings towards homosexuality.

The researchers want to raise awareness about the dangers and harm caused by so-called homosexuality treatments. Researchers say competent mental health professionals should value their gay patients as people, help them adjust to their situation, and help them see that there is nothing pathological about their sexual orientation.

Gay right’s activists are pleased that the researchers are making it clear, to health practitioners, that homosexual cures are widely discredited, misguided and do real harm to their patients.

 

Another Review of it from Eureka

Therapists still offering treatments for homosexuality despite lack of evidence

A significant minority of psychiatrists and therapists are still attempting to help lesbian, gay and bisexual clients become heterosexual despite lack of evidence that such treatment is beneficial or even safe, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The research, published today in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry, coincides with the launch of the website www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk. The website gathers together oral histories from lesbian, gay and bisexual people who have undergone treatment as well as from professionals who developed and conducted such treatments.

Researchers from UCL (University College London) and St George's, University of London, question over 1,400 mental health professionals on whether they would attempt to change a client's sexual orientation if requested. Although only one in twenty-five (4%) said that they would do so, one in six (17%) reported having assisted at least one client to reduce their gay or lesbian feelings, usually through therapy. Therapists were also asked in what year they had conducted such therapy and there was no sign of a decrease in recent times.

"There is very little evidence to show that attempting to treat a person's homosexual feelings is effective and in fact it can actually be harmful," says Professor Michael King from UCL. "So it is surprising that a significant minority of practitioners still offer this help to their clients."

Professor King and colleagues found that a number of reasons were given by the psychiatrists and therapists for offering assistance, ranging from the counsellor's own moral and religious views about homosexuality through to a desire to help patients who were stressed by discrimination. There was also a degree of ignorance about the lack of evidence surrounding such the efficacy of such therapies – in particular, that no randomised control trials have ever been conducted that show that the therapies are effective.

Comments from the counsellors who offered assistance included:

"Where someone had a strong faith, then working to help the person accept their feelings but manage them appropriately may be the best approach if [the] person felt they would lose God and therefore their life was not worth living."

"The individuals I have worked with have all been very unhappy about their sexuality and wish they were heterosexual. This has been because of responses from friends, family and the local community – which outside London is still very homophobic."

"Children and young adults are more likely to be confused about their sexuality and to jump to conclusions (correct or otherwise) if unable to talk through their concerns."

"Although homosexual feelings are usual in people, their physical expression, and being a person's only way of having sexual relations is problematic. The physical act for male homosexuals is physically damaging and is the main reason in this country for AIDS/HIV. It is also perverse."

Professor King believes that it is important to raise awareness amongst both therapists and the wider public about homosexuality and its so-called treatments.

"The best approach is to help people adjust to their situation, to value them as people and show them that there is nothing whatever pathological about their sexual orientation," he says. "Both mental health practitioners and society at large must help them to confront prejudice in themselves and in others."

The researchers have launched a new website, www.treatmentshomosexuality.org.uk, which aims to help raise awareness and collect oral histories from both mental health practitioners and the people they have treated.

Commenting on the research, Derek Munn, Director of Public Affairs at the gay and lesbian equality organisation Stonewall, says: "So-called gay cure therapies are wholly discredited. The conclusions of this research are a welcome reminder that what lesbian and gay people need is equal treatment by society, not misguided treatment by a minority of health professionals."

And the Study Abstract is here

And, you can even get the Provisional pdf.