By Melanie Nathan, February 09, 2024,
In the midst of Ghana's Parliament concluding the consideration phase of the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill, its promoter, MP Sam George revealed that the Presbyterian and Methodist churches of Ghana are backing Moses Foh-Amoaning in conducting conversion practices aimed at "helping" individuals who "have participated in LGBTQ activities to undergo reform."
He stated that over 50 individuals received support last year, and three parents sought his assistance regarding their LGBTQ children.
Additionally, he mentioned that certain Clauses, which would have facilitated conversion practices, were omitted from the Promotion of Proper Human Sexuality and Family Values Bill, because it was argued that they would burden the State financially, contradicting Article 108 of the Ghanaian Constitution.
Even though the conversion therapy is now excluded from the amended version of the Bill, it is highly likely that the practice will continue in Ghana as it has done for years, even before the Bill was first introduced back in 2021.
Conversion therapy is extremely dangerous and tantamount to torture. Conversion or reparative therapies are increasingly being outlawed through legislation in western countries due to evidence of extreme danger to the LGBTI individuals.
At African Human Rights Coalition we have received reports of these practices as carried out in Churches and Mosques have included starvation, floggings, isolation, unlawful detentions, rape (including so called "corrective" rape) and psychological abuse and denigration.
LGBTI people seeking to flee the country or who have already fled to other countries have reported undergoing such torture. We have also heard of incidents of death by suicide by those who had believed they could be cured of their sexuality.
We know these practices do not work and we know they are dangerous, and yet in Ghana the Parliamentarians pretend to have expertise through their admissions.
African Human Rights Coalition is calling on American Methodist and Presbyterian Churches to reach out to their Ghanaian colleagues to speak out against the practice and to come out with a global statement to decry it.
Ghana is a country where LGBTI people suffer extreme persecution, to include violence even without the new legislation, which now seeks jails terms for many years for people who "hold out" to be LGBTQI+ or an ally, (we await the final Bill for correct penalty). This legislation making its way through Parliament has resulted in the heightened anti-LGBTQI+ climate, making it a very dangerous place for all lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people.
By MELANIE NATHAN, ED African Human Rights Coalition, EXPERT WITNESS FOR LGBT ASYLUM SEEKERS FROM GHANA commissionermnathan@gmail.com | nathan@africanHRC.org
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