Anti-LGBTQ Bill Formally Introduced to Ghana’s Parliament
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By Melanie Nathan, Feb 20, 2026
Anti-LGBTQ Bill Formally Introduced to Ghana’s Parliament Following First Reading and Speaker’s Directive ...
The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill was formally introduced to the Parliament of Ghana after undergoing its First Reading during the House’s sitting on Tuesday, 17 February 2026.
At the sitting, the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, referred the bill to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for further consideration in line with legislative procedure.
In remarks supporting the justification for the proposed law, Minority New Patriotic Party MP John Ntim Fordjour cited findings from the Afrobarometer, claiming that 93 percent of Ghanaians consider the practices, promotion, and propagation of LGBT-related activities to be “repugnant” and contrary to societal values and morals.
However, this characterization does not reflect the findings published by CDD-Ghana under the Afrobarometer survey on attitudes toward same-sex relationships, raising concerns about the accuracy of the claim presented in Parliament.
The bill subsequently proceeded through the required parliamentary processes and was granted approval to be formally laid before the House following a directive by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, allowing it to advance within the legislative consideration framework of the current Parliament.
The Bill is one of the most onerous on the Continent. It passed in the previous Parliament but was not attested to by the former President mostly for procedural reasons - noting premature court challenges.
The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 represents a sweeping expansion of criminal liability far beyond the existing “unnatural carnal knowledge” provision in Ghana’s Criminal Offenses Act.
The Bill criminalizes not only same-sex sexual conduct, but also identity, expression, and association. It prohibits gender transition procedures, public identification with a gender different from one’s sex assigned at birth, and broad categories of what it terms “gross indecency.”
It voids same-sex marriages, including those lawfully contracted abroad, and criminalizes those who solemnize or assist in such unions.
The legislation further outlaws the formation, operation, or participation in LGBTQI+ organizations, and makes it an offense to provide property, funding, or logistical support for related activities. In effect, it shifts criminalization from specific conduct to the very existence and visibility of LGBTQI+ persons in public life.
Perhaps most consequentially, the Bill criminalizes advocacy, promotion, and the use of media or digital platforms to express support for LGBTQI+ rights, imposing penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment for what it characterizes as “propaganda.” It introduces mandatory reporting obligations, exposing family members, educators, religious leaders, journalists, and community members to prosecution if they fail to report suspected violations. By extending liability to speech, online communication, sponsorship, and organizational activity, and by designating offenses as extraditable, the Bill constructs a comprehensive enforcement regime that reaches into civil society, media, education, and private life. If enacted in its present form, it would establish one of the most expansive anti-LGBTQI+ legal frameworks currently proposed, with significant implications for freedom of expression, association, privacy, and personal security in Ghana.
Here is the BILL as gazetted in September 2025
Here is the Ghanaian Parliament introducing the Bill on Feb 17th and referring it to Committee: The nature of discussion in parliaments illustrates how the Bill is still being politicized, post 2024 election, by the Majority and opposition parties in Parliament.
Melanie Nathan is an internationally recognized expert on LGBTQI+ asylum and refugee protection in Sub-Saharan Africa and has previously been qualified as an expert witness in U.S. Immigration Courts and other international legal proceedings. As Executive Director of the African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC), she has worked directly with LGBTQI+ asylum seekers facing persecution, denial of refugee registration, and forced displacement across multiple jurisdictions, including Ghana and Uganda. She provides expert country-conditions reports in support of asylum, withholding of removal, and Convention Against Torture (CAT) claims, including matters involving third-country removal and motions to pretermit.
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