Ghana’s Parliament has overwhelmingly passed an extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bill as the country prepares to host a gathering of African leaders working to roll back the rights of sexual minorities and women.
On Friday afternoon, members of parliament voted to approve the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 — widely known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill — after its third reading.
Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill Criminalises Identity and Advocacy
If President John Mahama signs the bill into law, it will criminalise identifying as LGBTQ+ or as an ally. It will also target same-sex intimacy and gender-affirming medical services, with penalties of up to three years in prison and fines.
The dissemination or publication of materials that advocate for the equality or affirmation of LGBTQ+ people could carry prison sentences. The bill would also disband organisations that support LGBTQ+ rights and ban adoption by LGBTQ+ individuals.
The legislation passed amid criticism that public hearings on the bill lacked transparency, fairness and meaningful democratic participation. Activists argued that the hearings amplified the voices of the bill’s sponsors while limiting or excluding opposing perspectives.
Bill Revived After Previous Version Stalled
Ghana has been here before. Parliament first passed a version of the bill in February 2024. It stalled, however, when then-President Nana Akufo-Addo declined to sign it into law. After Parliament dissolved following the December 2024 elections, incoming President Mahama stated that the bill had effectively expired.
Lawmakers reintroduced the bill in February this year after Mahama said in November 2025 that, if Parliament passed the legislation again, “…I will sign it.”
Conference in Accra to Promote “Family Values”
Observers believe lawmakers pushed the legislation through to ensure its passage ahead of the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, which takes place in the capital, 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 that undermines cultural norms, traditional family structures, gender roles and children’s wellbeing across the continent.
The event serves as a major platform for promoting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, campaigning against comprehensive sexuality education and supporting restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
African Charter Raises Further Concerns
The conference is also expected to continue efforts to promote the adoption of the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values by African Union member states. The document portrays sexual and gender diversity and LGBTQ+ human rights as threats to African culture, traditions and the wellbeing of families and children.
Activists have pointed out that both the Charter and the conference have received support from right-wing Christian groups in the United States and Europe.
The organisation Rightify Ghana said that 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.”
It added that this amounted to “imported hate.”
