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Stories tagged with “Ghana”

NEWS FLASH

Ghana Hopes ‘Incidence Of Homosexuality Will Be A Thing Of The Past’ | The Ghana Ministry’s HIV/AIDS Secretariat “has trained teachers to educate students about homosexuality and its ‘adverse consequences‘ including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases,” LGBT Asylum News reports. “We are very optimistic that things will change and the incidence of homosexuality in the country will be a thing of the past,” Education Ministry Public Relations Officer Paul Krampah told the Accra Mail. Earlier this year, Ghana issued a directive allowing police to arrest people suspected to be gay or lesbian and legislators “began discussions last month on strengthening legal sanctions against gay people.”

NEWS FLASH

Commonwealth Countries Accuse Britain Of ‘Bullying’ | Responding to Britain’s threat to cut aid funding for Commonwealth countries that continue to persecute homosexuality, a Ugandan presidential official has said the country is “tired of these lectures” and being treated like “children.” An LGBT leader from Ghana points out that the plan could backfire, as the gay community could be punished for the aid cuts, escalating efforts to eliminate homosexuality entirely through harsher persecution.

LGBT

Member Of Ghana’s Parliament: Tourism Introduced Homosexuality To Ghana

By Igor Volsky on Sep 12, 2011 at 12:10 pm

Conservative groups in the African nation of Ghana have recently stepped up their attacks against gay and lesbian people, calling for their arrest and “rehabilitation.” Now, Joy Online is reporting that one member of Parliament is “blaming tourism for the introduction of homosexuality in the country”:

The NPP MP attributed the practice which he described as a growing trend in the country as indication of emotional and sexual slavery in Ghana.

Mr Balado Manu called on the executive to urgently initiate laws to curb the practice.

He asked the Tourism Ministry to develop a strategy which will reduce the negative impact of tourism on Ghanaians.

Balado Manu was responding to a statement by the Tourism Minister Akua Sena Dansua on preparation and the challenges facing this year’s PANAFEST and Emancipation day celebrations. The Ahafo Ano South MP disclosed that he is aware that some tourists visit the country for sex tourism.

Sexual contact between people of the same sex is illegal in Ghana and the country’s president — John Evans Atta Mills — recently made it clear that he has no intention of permitting “the practice of homosexuality and lesbianism.” During a recent speech, Mills claimed that homosexuality, drug abuse, armed robbery, child prostitution, rape, defilement, and other sex-related crimes were all contributing to the immorality prevalent in the society. At least one Ghana official, Nana Otu Akoto — the chief of Akwamufie in the Eastern Region — disagreed, telling a recent radio interviewer, “I am not a homosexual but I said we should legalize the homosexuality because it is real in Ghana. When something is real, you don’t drive it underground.”

The nation’s minister for justice and attorney general, Martin Amidu, has also declared that “homosexual acts engaged in privacy do not fall foul of the law, because one cannot tell what happens in people’s private life.” “It is illegal to invade the privacy of two rightful thinking adults to obtain evidence for prosecution purpose,” he said.

NEWS FLASH

President Of Ghana Compares Homosexuality To Drug Abuse, Armed Robbery, Child Prostitution, And Rape | In a speech for a festival on the theme of “Promoting Our Cultural Heritage to Eradicate Social Vices,” Ghana’s President John Evans Atta Mills made it clear that the government would not legalize “the practice of homosexuality and lesbianism.” He claimed that homosexuality, drug abuse, armed robbery, child prostitution, rape, defilement, and other sex-related crimes were all contributing to the immorality prevalent in the society.

NEWS FLASH

Ghana’s ‘International Movement Against Same Sex’ Lobbies To Criminalize Homosexuality | An anti-gay organization in Ghana known as the International Movement Against Same Sex (IMASS) has released a statement trying to justify the criminalization of homosexuality. Currently, male same-sex activity is illegal, but many groups are calling for all people who identify as homosexuals to be prosecuted. The group reconciles the persecution with the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, claiming homosexuality is “illegal by both divine and man-made laws” and obstructs “national security, safety, health, rights, ethics, and freedoms.” The group’s Executive Secretary, Prince Osei Tutu, also decried the pro-LGBT group Amnesty International as “a mischievous organization” that is trying to “homosexually colonize our people.” (HT: Behind The Mask.)

NEWS FLASH

Ghana’s Human Rights Commissioner: We’re Not Ready To Give LGBT People Rights | Homophobia has been escalating in the African country of Ghana, with calls to arrest all gays and provide them “rehabilitation.” Today, newly appointed Commissioner on Human Rights and Administrative Justice Lauretta Lamptey discounted reports that she previously supported the decriminalization of homosexuality, saying she was “misquoted and therefore misrepresented“:

I did not advocate that homosexuality should be decriminalized. My view is that, it currently isn’t clear whether it is even criminal and that if the view of the society is that it should be then, there should be a debate about that. [...]

In my view I don’t think as a society we are ready to give homosexuals, lesbians the whole category of people any of those kind of rights.

LGBT

The Morning Pride: August 9, 2011

By Zack Ford on Aug 9, 2011 at 8:50 am

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s 8:45 AM round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but let us know what you’re checking out too.

- Equality Matters’ Carlos Maza reports that despite the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling declaring sodomy laws unconstitutional, 18 states still criminalize consensual same-sex relationships, and many of those laws are still enforced.

- Equality Matters also points out that Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council — a hate group — continues to be welcomed onto cable news programs. In addition to MSNBC and Fox News appearances over the weekend, he was also on CNN just this morning to discuss the influence of the religious right.

- Blogger Alvin McEwen has set up a Change.org petition calling upon Congress to scrutinize fraudulent anti-gay testimony, like that from Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery and the National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher.

- The White House was not prepared on Monday to say whether or not federally-funded HIV/AIDS initiatives might be at risk for cuts under the debt agreement.

- Apparently, Maryland’s Catholic Archbishop, Edwin F. O’Brien, tried to talk Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) out of supporting marriage equality, as it would “deeply conflict” with the governor’s own Catholic faith.

- Contrary to anti-gay talking points, states with marriage equality tend to be those with the lowest divorce rates while states in the Bible belt tend to have some of the highest divorce rates.

- As anti-gay sentiments snowball in Ghana, the Presbyterian Church of Ghana is planning to establish therapy centers to “counsel and rehabilitate” homosexuals as a preventative measure, because homosexuality is “spreading fast.”

- Taiwan is preparing for its biggest same-sex mass wedding — about 60 lesbian couples will tie the knot later this month, even though the country does not recognize those marriages.

- Australian finance minister Penny Wong and her partner Sophie Allouache are expecting a child, which could have implications for the country’s upcoming debate on marriage equality.

- Comedian Tim Allen is already playing defense about his new ABC sitcom because of a joke that a certain preschool might cause his character’s grandson to end up “dancing on a parade float.”

- Marquette University, a Jesuit-run school, is under fire from conservatives for putting its InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter on probation after it dismissed one of its officers for coming out and admitting he had a boyfriend. The school was enforcing its nondiscrimination policy, which includes sexual orientation.

- The National Organization for Marriage’s candidate pledge — which has been signed by Bachmann, Santorum, Romney, and Pawlenty — requires signatories to investigate harassment against opponents of LGBT equality, as portrayed in this cartoon:

Yglesias

Obama’s Tough Love for Africa

By Matthew Yglesias on Jul 11, 2009 at 5:24 pm

I’m always reading on the Corner that Barack Obama is a far-left radical driven by anti-American and anti-Western impulses. Under the circumstances, it’s weird that he keeps giving speeches that are so at odds with his world view:

President Barack Obama addresses the parliament of Ghana (White House photo)

President Barack Obama addresses the parliament of Ghana (White House photo)

But despite the progress that has been made — and there has been considerable progress in many parts of Africa — we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya had a per capita economy larger than South Korea’s when I was born. They have badly been outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent.

In many places, the hope of my father’s generation gave way to cynicism, even despair. Now, it’s easy to point fingers and to pin the blame of these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense helped to breed conflict. The West has often approached Africa as a patron or a source of resources rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants. In my father’s life, it was partly tribalism and patronage and nepotism in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is still a daily fact of life for far too many.

One sociological finding I’m fascinated with is the fact that the extent to which one overestimates one’s personal degree of control over one’s fortunes is an important predictor of success. In other words, success in life is partly a result of circumstances and luck and partly a result of individual effort. And people who overestimate the importance of effort at more likely to succeed. It makes sense when you think about it, but it’s also a bit paradoxical.

In that light, I think this is a useful kind of message to spread. It’s not helpful to a country to have its politics dominated by post-colonial grievances and attempted blame-shifting. But particularly amidst a global economic crisis, I think it’s striking the extent to which few countries really are masters of their own destiny. And it’s not just Africa. The Canadian banking system, for example, is very strong and the Canadians don’t seem to have made any important errors in macroeconomic policy. But they’re going to have a painful recession just like everyone else, because Canada’s economy is very intertwined with America’s. And you see tons and tons of this sort of thing in poor countries where the prices of commodities they export can collapse for reasons that are far outside their control. And, again, the Ghanas of the world are very seriously impacted by the nature of the global trading regime and by rich countries’ immigration policies, but Ghana has no real ability to influence either of those things.

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