Link to Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/24/ghana-shuts-down-lgbt-office-rights-group
Ghana security forces raided and shut down the office of an LGBTQ rights group in the capital. Gay sex is a criminal offence in the West African country and members of the LGBTQ community face widespread discrimination. The LGBTQ group’s director, Alex Donkor, told the AFP news agency that closing the centre was against human rights. “Ghana is a free country and we expect the president and the security agencies to rather protect us instead of threatening us,” Donkor said. Ghana’s minister-designate for gender, children and social protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo, said last week that “the issue of the criminality of LGBT is non-negotiable and our cultural practices also frown on it”. There is no legislation in Ghana explicitly prohibiting homosexuality, but gay sex is criminalised, with offenders potentially facing up to 25 years in prison.
LGBTQ+ rights have been a big issue all over the world. In the United States, a democratic country, who’s sole principle is the freedom to do whatever you want as long as it is not illegal. Has had some struggle with accepting the LGBTQ+ community. It was not until 2015 that gay marriage was legal. Now, in a country that probably does not have a whole lot of rights, the government is shutting down a LGBTQ+ rights office and there is nothing anyone can really do about it. Yeah it might go against human rights, but a lot of countries do not believe in basic human rights.
This again goes into the whole idea of international relations on what the United States should or should not get involved in. The United States is not going to involve itself with the issue of the Ghana government shutting down the LGBTQ+ rights office, especially when half the country does not really support the LGBTQ+ group in general. The most the government will do is condemn the shutting down of the LGBTQ+ office and what will that really do? Sadly the people in Ghana are going to have to continue their practices in secret and hope that one day the world changes its mind.