Ghana’s newly passed anti-LGBTQ+ bill has reignited fears for the safety and rights of queer people across West Africa. Mpho Nana Davis Mac-Iyalla, Executive Director, Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA), offers a message of solidarity, practical guidance and cautious hope for the road ahead.
On Friday, Ghana’s Parliament passed the amended Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 — a bill that continues to criminalise LGBTQ+ people and restrict the work of organisations, advocates, and community members who support them. Although the amendments now protect lawyers, journalists, and medical professionals who offer essential services, the bill still poses a profound threat to the safety, dignity, and freedom of LGBTQ+ Ghanaians.
At the Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA), we recognise this moment as a critical test of our collective resilience. Our mission has always been clear: to build inclusive faith spaces, protect human dignity, and strengthen the rights and well-being of sexual and gender minorities across West Africa and the diaspora. Today’s decision does not change that mission — it deepens it.
As this news settles across our communities, I return to a truth that has carried our people through generations of hardship: Hope is not the absence of struggle — it is the refusal to surrender our humanity.
We come from ancestors who survived systems designed to break them. Their resilience flows through us. And today, as the law turns against our communities, that ancestral refusal to give up must guide us again.
IDNOWA’s Perspective on the Path Ahead
Parliament’s vote is not the final step. The anti-LGBTQ+ bill now moves to the President for assent, and constitutional challenges may continue. IDNOWA will remain vigilant, working with legal partners, regional allies, and international networks to monitor developments and defend the rights of our communities.
Our commitment is grounded in our organisational values:
- Dignity: Every person is sacred.
- Inclusion: Faith must never be used as a weapon.
- Solidarity: We rise by holding one another.
- Justice: No law can erase our humanity.
These values will continue to guide our advocacy, our partnerships, and our community‑care work across 11 West African countries and the diaspora.
How Our Communities Can Stay Safe
In moments like this, fear is real — but fear must not isolate us. Safety is a collective practice, and IDNOWA encourages all community members to take the following steps:
1. Strengthen Digital Security
- Use encrypted messaging apps.
- Avoid sharing identifiable information online.
- Enable two‑factor authentication on all accounts.
2. Protect Physical Safety
- Avoid gatherings that could be misinterpreted under the new law.
- Move in trusted networks.
- Keep emergency contacts and safe locations accessible.
3. Seek Support from Exempt Professionals
The amended bill protects:
- Lawyers providing legal representation
- Journalists reporting professionally
- Medical and mental‑health professionals offering care
You can still access:
- Legal advice
- Medical treatment
- Counselling and psychosocial support
without those professionals facing punishment.
4. Document Violations Safely
If you experience harassment or threats:
- Record details privately and securely.
- Share only with trusted organisations or legal professionals.
- Avoid posting sensitive evidence publicly.
5. Stay Connected
IDNOWA encourages community members to:
- Check on one another
- Share verified information
- Build small circles of care
- Participate in virtual support spaces
- Reach out to trusted leaders and allies
Isolation increases vulnerability. Community increases safety.
How We Continue to Resist
IDNOWA’s work has always been rooted in faith‑based solidarity, community empowerment, and human‑rights advocacy. This moment calls us to deepen that work.
We resist by:
- Telling our stories
- Supporting one another
- Documenting injustices
- Strengthening alliances across faiths, professions, and borders
- Engaging legal pathways
- Refusing to internalise shame or fear
Oppressive systems thrive when we are hopeless. They depend on our exhaustion. They depend on our silence. But our sacred relationships — to ourselves, our communities, our ancestors, and the Divine — can light the path forward.
A Final Word of Courage
The last few days’ news is heavy. It is painful. It is unjust.
But it is not the end of our story.
We have survived worse.
We have organised under harsher conditions.
We have built community in the shadows and in the light.
We have held each other through storms meant to erase us.
And we will continue.
Hope is not naïve. Hope is our inheritance.
Hope is our strategy.
Hope is our resistance.
As IDNOWA, we remain unwavering in our commitment to protect the dignity, safety, and humanity of all LGBTQ+ people across West Africa and the diaspora. We will continue to advocate, to organise, and to stand with our communities — no matter how dark the moment feels.
Our ancestors refused to give up.
We honour them by refusing to give up on each other.
Davis Mac Iyalla is a queer spiritual leader and openly gay traditional chief in Ghana, with deep roots in faith-based advocacy and interfaith engagement. He is a humxn rights defender committed to advancing dignity, inclusion, and justice for LGBTQI+ communities across Africa. Davis serves as Executive Director of the Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA) and is the Africa Coordinator for Africa GNRC (Global Network of Rainbow Catholics). He writes and speaks in his own capacity.
