Ghana's LGBT terror: 'We live in fear of snitches' - BBC News

A bill that will impose jail terms for simply identifying as LGBTQ+ is terrifying the gay community.

13 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Sulley Lansah/BBCBy Favour Nunoo & Thomas NaadiBBC News, AccraHomophobia is not uncommon in Ghana, where gay sex is already against the law and carries a three-year prison sentence, but now the LGBTQ+ community is feeling terrorised.

A new bill, passed by MPs last week, will impose a jail term of up to three years for simply identifying as LGBTQ+ and five years for promoting their activities.

"A relative told me if this bill is passed, any chance he gets, he is going to poison me because I am an abomination to the family," Mensah, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, tells the BBC.

Dressed in an all-black outfit, the young man in his late teens looks visibly terrified: "I am very worried anyone can snitch on me, even in my own neighbourhood. It's going to be very hard to live here."

He has been living for some time with sympathetic friends in Ghana's capital, Accra, since falling out with his family.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68490872

---