‘We’re not forcing ourselves on you, stop hating us’ – LGBTQ+ Rights Director

Alex Kofi Donkor, Director of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, has said the LGBT+ community is not forcing itself on Ghanaians.

He called on Ghanaians to stop hating its members.

“Forcing ourselves into a society? I don’t think so”, Mr Donkor told Kofi Oppong Asamoah on the Class Morning Show on Monday, 22 February 2021.

According to him, “LGBTQ people are the ordinary Ghanaians, so, nobody is forcing anything on anyone”.

He noted, “it is homophobia that is being projected, it is hate that is being projected at us and, so, for us, I believe that it is important for us to look at the hate, the homophobia, the discrimination that is being projected at us and then find a solution to this challenge”.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has asked President Nana Akufo-Addo to shut down an office that was recently opened for the LGBT+ community in Ghana.

“We call on the government of Ghana to close down the LGBTQI office space that was recently opened in Accra”, the Bishops said in a statement.

They also said: “We call upon the President of the Republic and Parliament to state unambiguously their position on the matter of homosexuality and its practice in Ghana” and urged “the Executive and the Legislature never to be cowed or to succumb to the pressure to legalise the rights of LGBTQIs in Ghana”.

The EU recently expressed its support to the opening of the LGBT+ office, which has drawn condemnation from civil society and religious groups in Ghana.

The Bishops said though they are opposed the practices of the LGBT+ community, the rights of those involved must be respected.

“Even though the Church strongly condemns homosexual acts, it insists that the rights of homosexuals as persons should be respected. Homosexuals are also human beings, created in the image of God, and they should enjoy the same fundamental human rights that all people enjoy. But what are these human rights? By human rights we mean the universal, inviolable and inalienable rights that are due to the human person as a rational being possessing a free will. Human rights protect, or are intended to protect, the dignity of the human person against State and Society. Specific human rights include the right to life, personal liberty and due process of law; to freedom of thought, expression, religion, organisation, and movement; to freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, age, language, and sex; to basic education; to employment; and to property”, the statement said.

Read the full statement of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’