114 Ghanaian gays, lesbians in cry foul; narrate chilling abuses to Human Rights Watch

A total of 114 Ghanaians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) have narrated widespread discrimination and abuses meted out to them both in public and in family settings.

Human Rights Watch said it interviewed the 114 LGBT people in Accra, Tamale, Kumasi, and Cape Coast in December 2016 and February 2017.

The 72-page report, titled “‘No Choice but to Deny Who I Am’: Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Ghana documented violence against lesbian, bisexual and gender-non-conforming women in Ghana which often takes place in the privacy of their own homes.

Family abuse and rejection

According to the reports, numerous lesbian and bisexual women interviewees told Human Rights Watch that when their family members suspected that they were homosexual, they were beaten and evicted from the family home.

Although pressure to marry primarily affects lesbian and bisexual women, some gay and bisexual men face similar issues.

Even though the country’s laws criminalise unnatural carnal knowledge, the practice of men who have sex with men (MSM), popularly called gay, is on an alarming rise.

30,000 gays in Ghana

It is estimated that MSM in Ghana are over 30,000 and they can be found in all 10 regions of the country.

The figure is contained in a report titled Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance (IBBS) survey, which was commissioned by the Ghana AIDS Commission in 2011.

17% of gays are living with HIV

According to the report, 17% of men who sleep with men (MSM) are living with HIV.

Mother organized mob to beat lesbian daughter

In May 2016, in a village outside Kumasi in the Ashanti region, the mother of a young woman organized a mob to beat up her daughter and another woman because she suspected they were lesbians and in a same-sex relationship. The two young women were forced to flee the village.

Lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender men are frequently victims of family violence, Human Rights Watch found.

Lesbians described being threatened, beaten, and driven from their homes after family members learned of their sexual orientation.

Lesbian woman chased out of the house with a machete

One woman said that when her family heard that she was associating with LGBT people, they chased her out of the house with a machete.

She has not been able to go back home to visit her 2-year old daughter. LGBT people’s fear that the law could be used against them, combined with social stigma, serves as a barrier to seeking justice, Human Rights Watch found.

Source: the finder