After secondary school, I got a scholarship to study at MIT. Back in college, my roommate, a straight Portuguese man, and I became good friends. I came out to him in a letter. He was probably the second or third person I came out to, and when I handed him the letter, I rushed off into the shower because it was the only safe place that I could just kind of get away to and hide and be by myself.
He read my letter, waited while I took the longest shower of my life, and when I came out of the shower he gave me a hug. His roommate had just told him he was gay, and he hugged me. I think back to that simple gesture and I find it profoundly human. Because he reacted not with distance, or paranoia, but with love and empathy.
He understood that my coming out to him had been a very difficult step in a homophobic world. He chose to honor love rather than indulge in hate. Today, every Ghanaian is faced with a similar choice. Will you turn to your lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendar, queer, intersex, and asexual neighbor with love? Or will you turn to us with hate? These days when I return home to Ghana, I keep to myself and my family because those are the spaces in which I feel safe, and those are the people with whom I can be myself.
And I am grateful for the love of some of my schoolmates from Presec, who reach out and insist on grabbing a drink together. They affirm my belonging. They try to reassure me that there are places in Ghana where I, their gay brother, can live free and safe.
Their optimism is a lifeline. I hold on to it, hoping that you, too, will step up and come out as an ally in our defense. A version of this article was first published on Facebook. Sign up to the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief here for news and analysis on African business, tech, and innovation in your inbox.
Hiding in a safe house in Accra, Ghana, Joe, a homophobic attack victim describes to CNN how a group of men kidnapped him and physically and mentally abused him for being gay.
He says the men took him to an abandoned construction site for interrogation. In a grainy video, seen by CNN, they bark at him in Fante dialect: "Is it true that you told him that you like him?
Later in the clip, Joe is seen crouching on the ground as he is repeatedly kneed in the head by one of his attackers. When videos of Joe's ordeal were shared on social media several months later, he says his father threw him out of the family home. I was like, it is better to kill myself, but I had nowhere to go," he says. Video after video show Ghanaians -- mostly men perceived as being gay -- being harassed and beaten on camera, sometimes stripped naked by their assailants.
Lesbian and trans Ghanaians are also targeted, say activists, but most attacks go unreported. Although some are harassed and shamed publicly, these attitudes were not universal; activists speak of regular LGBTQ-friendly parties held in Accra being advertised openly on social media.
Old sodomy laws dating back to remain on the statute books in Ghana -- as they do across much of Africa -- but they are rarely, if ever, enforced.
This year, that could all change. A door opens, then is shut. The backlash was immediate. Traditional leaders, church groups, and lawmakers flooded social media, rushed to local TV stations, and used their pulpits to excoriate the center, blaming its existence on Western influence and claiming it was an attempt to "recruit" young Ghanaians.
The resulting public outcry led to a police raid, and the center was closed less than a month after it had opened.
The bill was introduced in parliament in early August. The draft "Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill" -- a copy of which has been obtained by CNN -- would see LGBTQ Ghanaians face jail time, or be coerced into so-called "conversion therapy" -- a widely discredited practice debunked by much of the international medical and psychiatric communities.
Under the bill, advocates of the LGBTQ community would face up to a decade in prison; public displays of same-sex affection or cross dressing could lead to a fine or jail time, and certain types of medical support would be made illegal. The new law would also make the distribution of material deemed pro-LGBTQ by news organization or websites illegal. Standing outside Ghana's imposing parliament complex as a bank of dark clouds threatens to break the intense heat, the MP says: "In the beginning of this year we had a group of people in the guise of an NGO trying to lure people into their fold.
We noticed that it [being a member of the LGBTQ community] is spreading like wildfire in the country. Recognizing that sexual minorities in developing countries often face a double setback from lack of resources and discrimination in accessing healthcare, the Health Equity Project HEP , a New York based nonprofit group, has launched a new initiative to assist gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender GLBT and commercial sex worker populations in the West African country of Ghana.
HEP plans to expand the program to other African countries Literature Review. Findings: 3. Conclusions and Recommendations. Appendix: Terms, Survey, References. Abbreviations and Acronyms. Some of these include: Pleasure Versus Economic Reasons. The role played by money in MSM cannot be over-emphasised.
A total of respondents or Almost half of the respondents 71 or Some 56 respondents or Female sex workers FSWs and men who have sex with men MSM contribute disproportionately to the number of new infections According to UNAIDS, a study conducted in three prisons in Nsawam and Accra revealed high HIV prevalence among inmates 19 percent , the most likely cause of which was sex between men, followed by injecting drug use.
With the support of PEPFAR, these two organizations have been part of much-needed efforts to reach MSM with prevention messages, condoms, and lubricant and to increase uptake of HIV-related services using cell phone-based communications Many African MSM are surprised to discover that the sex they have with other men puts them at risk for acquiring the virus.
The media and most prevention programming in the region consistently describe HIV vulnerability in terms of heterosexual risk, and many African MSM do not realize that they too are vulnerable. The few programs that do target this population face significant challenges in reaching MSM with the information and services they need. Ghana, which like its neighboring states condemns homosexuality, is distinguished from most countries in sub-Saharan Africa by the level of activity addressing HIV among MSM.
Although the Ghanaian government has not publicly embraced these efforts, officials have also not prevented the development of these interventions despite the legal prohibition of homosexual behavior. Clemmons: PPT Presentation. Gays, Lesbians Go Gospel. Ghana's laws do not prohibit homosexuality - Law lecturer. The audience was extremely interested in the results of the questionnaire. Basically, the results indicated that the respondees perceived homosexuality as unacceptable behavior.
Delivered Wednesday. August 4, , AM. The Week Ahead Wednesday, Aug. November 12, , AM. Trending 1. Blame Brussels. Fiona Hill: U. The Multibillion-Dollar U. Latest Analysis. Andrew Connelly.
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