Ghana speaker condemned after anti-gay comment

The LGBT community has condemned Ghana’s speaker of parliament for saying that the country was taking urgent steps to enact clear anti-gay laws.

According to Alban Bagbin, homosexuality should not be encouraged or accepted because of what he saw as its eventual negative impact on society.

The speaker was responding to a letter from a political activist who petitioned parliament to pass a new law that would ban LGBT activities in the country.

But Robert Akoto, who heads the Alliance for Equality and Diversity, says the speaker of parliament needs some education on LGBT matters.

He told the BBC that Ghana should not “degrade its standard in human rights which is already degraded”.

There is no law in Ghana that says being gay is illegal. But same-sex relationships are criminalised by a criminal code

Twenty-one people are currently on trial in Ghana for unlawful assembly after they were accused of promoting an LGBT agenda.

In March, members of the LGBT community told the BBC about the discrimination they faced in the West African nation: