Ghana’s Parliament has overwhelmingly passed a severe anti-LGBTQ+ bill, just days before the country is due to host a major gathering of African leaders focused on rolling back the rights of LGBTQ+ people, women and sexual minorities.
On Friday afternoon, MPs voted to approve the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, commonly known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, after its third reading.
Anti-LGBTQ+ bill targets identity and advocacy
If signed into law by President John Mahama, the bill would criminalise identifying as LGBTQ+ or as an LGBTQ+ ally. It would also target same-sex intimacy and gender-affirming medical services, with penalties including fines and prison sentences of up to three years.
The legislation would make it a criminal offence to share or publish materials that advocate for LGBTQ+ equality or affirmation. It would also force the closure of organisations that support LGBTQ+ rights and ban LGBTQ+ people from adopting children.
The bill’s passage has drawn criticism from activists, who say public hearings were neither transparent nor fair. They argue that the process gave significant space to the bill’s supporters while limiting or excluding opposing voices and meaningful democratic participation.
Bill revived after earlier version stalled
Ghana’s Parliament previously passed a version of the bill in February 2024, but it did not become law after then-President Nana Akufo-Addo declined to sign it.
Following the December 2024 elections and the dissolution of Parliament, incoming President Mahama said the legislation had effectively expired.
Lawmakers reintroduced the bill in February this year after Mahama had stated in November 2025 that, if Parliament passed the legislation again, “…I will sign it.”
Accra conference to promote “family values”
Observers believe MPs pushed the bill through ahead of the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, which is scheduled to take place in Accra from 3 to 6 June.
The conference will bring together parliamentarians to promote what organisers describe as “African values” and to oppose what they claim is a foreign agenda threatening cultural norms, traditional family structures, gender roles and children’s wellbeing across the continent.
The event is expected to serve as a major platform for supporting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, opposing comprehensive sexuality education and backing restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Draft African Charter sparks further alarm
The conference is also expected to advance efforts to promote the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values among African Union member states.
The document frames sexual and gender diversity, as well as LGBTQ+ human rights, as threats to African culture, tradition, families and children.
Activists have also raised concerns about the involvement of right-wing Christian groups from the United States and Europe, which they say have supported both the conference and the Charter.
Rightify Ghana said international “right-wing extremists mobilised our MPs through local networks, lectured them on with resources to target and attack LGBTQ+ rights, and then provided them with draft laws to criminalise the LGBTQ community.”
The organisation described the effort as “imported hate.”
If signed, the bill would represent one of Ghana’s most severe crackdowns on LGBTQ+ people and organisations, with consequences not only for queer Ghanaians but for anyone accused of supporting their rights.
