The News
Ghana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected two challenges to a controversial anti-LGBT bill, paving the way for it to become law.
The bill had been unanimously approved by the Ghanaian parliament in February, but outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo delayed signing it pending the legal challenges. Incoming President John Dramani Mahama has indicated there will be more crackdowns on LBGT rights during his presidency.
Ghana was once heralded as among the most liberal democracies in West Africa, but that reputation has faltered in recent years amid human rights concerns, and homosexual relationships are criminalized in the country. If the new bill becomes law, then anything deemed to be “promotion, sponsorship or support” in favor of an LGBT lifestyle could be punished by up to five years in prison — making it one of the most repressive anti-LGBT laws on the continent, Reuters reported.