anti-LGBTQ bill - The African Mirror

Mar

23

2024

Ghana parliament speaker criticises president for delaying anti-LGBTQ bill

NEWS, LGBTQIA+

GHANA'S speaker of parliament has said President Nana Akufo-Addo's refusal to act on an anti-LGBTQ bill for the time being was unconstitutional and that parliament would stop approving new ministerial appointments. One of Africa's harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, unanimously passed by Ghana's parliament last month, has been on hold since the president's office said it would wait for the outcome of two legal challenges before the law goes to Akufo-Addo for assent. The decision to wait came after a finance ministry warning that the bill could jeopardise $3.8 million in World Bank financing and derail a $3-billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package. But it has sparked…

Mar

06

2024

By RACHEL SAVAGE

Ghana’s president says anti-LGBTQ bill has not reached his desk

NEWS

AN anti-LGBTQ bill passed by Ghana's parliament last week, which could derail international aid for the West African country if it becomes law according to an internal government memo, has not yet reached the desk of President Nana Akufo-Addo, he said on Monday. In his first comments on the bill's passage, he said Ghana would not backslide on its human rights record and added that the bill had been challenged in the Supreme Court. "I have learnt that today, a challenge has been mounted at the Supreme Court," Akufo-Addo said in a statement. "In the circumstances, it would be as well…

Mar

04

2024

By COOPER INVEEN

Ghana LGBTQ activist says friends in hiding after crackdown bill passes

NEWS

GHANAIAN trans woman and activist Angel Maxine fled to Berlin before parliament passed an anti-LGBTQ bill. She fears for the safety of the friends she has had to leave behind. Lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously passed the legislation that will intensify a crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ people and those accused of promoting lesbian, gay or other minority sexual or gender identities in the West African country. "I needed a safe place to continue my work as an activist," said Maxine, who left the country last week. "The threats were just so much and I had to just find a way…

Apr

21

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda’s president sends anti-LGBTQ bill back to parliament to make it even tougher

LGBTQIA+

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni supports a bill containing some of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation but sent it back to parliament to make it even tougher, the ruling party's chief whip said. A group of lawmakers from Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement discussed the bill with the president and agreed in principle to sign the bill into law, chief whip Denis Hamson Obua said. "Before that is done we also agree that the bill will be returned in order to facilitate the reinforcement and the strengthening of some provisions in line with our best practices," he told a news conference…