Accra, Ghana – September, 4, 2019: John Mahama at the Kofi Annan Peace and Security forum
In remarks to a delegation of bishops in Ghana, the country’s new president, John Mahama, said a bill targeting LGBTQ+ Ghanaians and their allies was “effectively dead.”
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, first introduced in 2021, would impose a prison sentence of up to three years for Ghanaians who identified as LGBTQ+ and up to five years for those who organized or funded LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.
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“As far as I know, the bill did not get to the president,” Mahama said, referring to his predecessor, Nana Akufo-Ado. “So, the convention is that all bills that are not assented to law before the expiration of the life of parliament, expire. So that bill effectively is dead.”
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Mahama took office on January 7 after a landslide victory. He previously served as president from 2012 to 2017 and promised an economic and social “reset” with his election.
“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do, but I think we should have a conversation about it again,” he told the bishops.
LGBTQ+ advocates in the West African nation welcomed the new president’s declaration.
“While Mahama may not yet be fully committing to a clear policy direction, his statement leaves open the possibility of a more balanced approach, one that allows for a national conversation on sexual rights without rushing into divisive legislation,” Berinyuy Burinyuy, Communications Director for LGBT+ Rights Ghana, told the Washington Blade.
In his remarks to clerics attending the Ghana Catholic Bishop’s Conference, Mahama said, “If we are teaching our values in schools, we wouldn’t need to pass a bill to enforce family values. More than just passing the Family Values Bill, we need to agree on a curriculum that instills these values in our children as they grow.”
Burinyuy called Mahama’s remarks a major shift in the conversation around LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana.
“For many, the mere suggestion that LGBT+ issues could be addressed through education rather than criminalization represents a significant departure from the traditional legislative path championed by the bill’s proponents,” he said. “This shift implies a possible opening for dialogue and a more inclusive approach, one that recognizes the need for respect and understanding of diverse sexual identities within Ghanaian society.”
A “family values” curriculum comes freighted with its own risks for LGBTQ+ people, however, as Don’t Say Gay legislation in the United States and other countries has demonstrated. How they’re presented in an educational setting was a concern for Burinyuy.
“Will the curriculum provide a comprehensive, nuanced understanding of human sexuality that respects diversity, or will it risk reinforcing discriminatory attitudes under the guise of cultural preservation?” he asked. “The fear, particularly among LGBT+ activists, is that the emphasis on education could inadvertently foster homophobia in Ghanaian children. If the content is not carefully structured, it could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and deepen existing prejudices.”
LGBTQ+ activist Yaw Mensah said he believed Mahama is preaching tolerance for all Ghanaians, regardless of their sexual orientation.
“Mahama is indirectly saying LGBT persons are not Ghana’s problems. Let’s teach families values that accept and respect everyone. Ghanaian values should be tolerance, respect, honesty, hardworking, hospitality, and integrity,” he said. “Those need to be taught and not the hate, discrimination, barbarism, greediness, and hypocrisy that we are seeing in many leaders which transcends into the young ones.”
Mahama is a highly respected voice among African leaders and a longtime player on the world stage. He was a member of the Pan-African Parliament, the European and Pan-African Parliaments’ Ad hoc Committee on Cooperation, and the United Nations Development Program Advisory Committee on Conflict Resolution in Ghana. He was a founding member of the Ghana AIDS Commission in 2016.
He’s also a Gates Foundation Fellow and was a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His memoir My First Coup d’État: Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa was published in 2012.
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