Anti-gay Bill passed

Ghana’s Parliament has voted to pass a controversial Bill to severely restrict LGBTQ rights in a move condemned by rights activists. The Bill still has to be validated by President Nana Akufo-Addos before becoming law, which observers believe is unlikely before December’s election. News24 reports that activist groups have called the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill a setback for human rights and urged government to reject it. However, the Bill is widely supported in Ghana, where Akufo-Addo has said gay marriage will never be allowed while he is in power. Commonly referred to as the anti-gay Bill, the legislation received sponsorship from a coalition comprising Christian, Muslim and Ghanaian traditional leaders, finding substantial backing among MPs. 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. Legalbrief reports that the US is ‘deeply troubled’ by the development. ‘The Bill would also undermine Ghana’s valuable public health, media and civic spaces, and economy,’ the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. It has called for the ‘review of the constitutionality of the Bill’.