Homophobes in Ghana and Turkiye keep pushing for anti-LGBTQ laws

Ghana’s bill would make it a crime to ‘hold out as’ LGBTQ. 

Ghana’s harsh Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill was formally introduced in parliament on Feb. 17 as a private member’s bill, Mamba Online reported.

Meanwhile, Turkiye’s ministry of justice has reiterated its plan to propose laws to limit transgender health care and toughen penalties for same-sex marriages, “glorifying deviance” and acting “contrary to biological sex”.

Ghana’s parliament had passed its harsh anti-LGBTQ bill in 2024, but the bill expired without the signature of then President Nana Akufo-Addo. Ghana’s  current president, John Mahama, stated last year that he will sign it if Parliament passes it.

In March 2025, a group of anti-LGBTQ members of parliament said they had refiled the bill  but later discovered that it was not on Parliament’s official order of business. So a group of parliamentarians reintroduced it on Oct. 21, 2025. It is unclear what the difference is between the October 2025 and February 2026 actions, if any.

If enacted, the anti-LGBTQ bill would expand on Ghana’s current law that provides a three-year prison sentence for same-sex intimacy. The new bill would add the same punishment  for people who:

• Identify as (“hold out as”) LGBTQ;
• Participate in gender-reassignment surgery; or
• Enter into a same-sex marriage or attend a same-sex wedding.

It would also impose prison sentences of up to 10 years on people who “promote” LGBTQ activity.

The bill is widely opposed by human rights advocates, as well as by Peter Turkson, a cardinal of the Catholic Church in Ghana. Turkson has distanced himself from the bill because it would criminalize people for merely being gay rather than for any actions.

Ghana’s Human Rights Commission told Parliament it would encroach on the fundamental human right of association.

Davis Mac-Iyalla, the executive director of the Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDONWA), said the bill is unconstitutional, discriminatory and would place a financial burden on the nation by forcing it to imprison anyone who “promotes” LGBTQ+ rights.

Turkiye

Rob Salerno’s LGBTQ Global newsletter reports that in Turkiye (the preferred spelling of the country still widely known as Turkey),  the ministry of justice:

“has reiterated its plans to introduce new laws that would increase existing penalties for ‘glorifying deviance,’ including ‘exhibitionism,’ acting ‘contrary to biological sex,’ and holding same-sex engagement or marriage ceremonies. New laws will also impose strict limits on transgender-related health care, including a minimum age of 25, with harsh criminal penalties for both patients and providers who violate the rules. Many of these restrictions would be clear violations of Turkiye’s international human rights commitments. These plans were first announced last year, and there’s no actual legislation yet.”

Click here to subscribe to the LGBTQ Global newsletter.