By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 A sweeping draft bill framed in the guise of \u201cfamily values\u201d has put a bullseye on Ghana\u2019s LGBTQ community, proposing some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill gives LGBTQ members 2 options: Jail time or conversion therapy\u2014practice which aims to change or suppress a person\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity. It has been condemned by more than 60 associations of doctors, psychologists and counsellors worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposed legislation has even violated some tenets of the Anglican Church, observed the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who questioned the morality of pushing the country\u2019s LGBTQ into the shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Anglican Communion, he said, made a commitment \u201cto assure [LGBTQ+ people] that they are loved by God and that all baptized, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If enacted, he said, the bill would violate the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution I:10, and the rights of every person, regardless of sexual orientation, before the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On numerous occasions, he added, the primates of the Anglican Communion have stated their opposition to the criminalization of same-sex attracted people: most recently, and unanimously, in the communiqu\u00e9 of the 2016 Primates\u2019 Meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI remind our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church of Ghana of these commitments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with CNN, one gay activist said sorrowfully: “I can’t change the way I am. This is natural, and it is how I feel. But we are all dead now. We can’t go out again and we can’t mingle with our friends again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Human Rights Watch report from 2018 found that Ghana had a mixed record in its treatment of LGBTQ Ghanaians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Old sodomy laws dating back to 1960 remain on the statute books in Ghana\u2014as they do across much of Africa\u2014but they are rarely, if ever, enforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are a global family of churches,\u201d the Archbishop was quoted to say, \u201cbut the mission of the church is the same in every culture and country: to demonstrate, through its actions and words, God\u2019s offer of unconditional love to every human being through Jesus Christ.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 01 November 2021]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: A group of pro-gay marchers in Ghana, dressed in bright clothing holding signs and rainbow flags. Source: GCN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 A sweeping draft bill framed in the guise of \u201cfamily values\u201d has put a bullseye on Ghana\u2019s LGBTQ community, proposing some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent. The bill gives LGBTQ members 2 options: Jail time or conversion therapy\u2014practice which aims to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,26,13,20,16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-culture-art-religion","9":"category-goal10","10":"category-human-right","11":"category-news","12":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6179,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions\/6179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}