Ghana's Proposed LGBTQ+ Bill

It's almost as if Ghana is Seeking to Gag Literary Outlets & Publishers. Or, are they?

[Background: Ghana’s Parliament has passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill again in 2026 after an earlier 2024 version lapsed without presidential assent.]

Heterosexual or not, we cannot be lackadaisical about the far-reaching consequences of the new LGBTQ+ regulations in Ghana. If you are a literary outlet, to ignore the draft bill would be foolish.

WARNING

If signed into law, the bill would likely create a much more restrictive environment for any mainstream publishing outlet/s covering LGBTQ issues in Ghana.

Please Explain its Implications for publishing outlets

For us publishers and editors of digital outlets, the main contention would be who we can publish and whose writing we can circulate.

Heightened legal risk and caution:

I fear that Literary outlets in Africa may become more conservative about opinion pieces, features and refuse to publish writing by those from the Queer community. Publishers may need pre-publication review for stories touching on LGBTQ issues.

Operational and platform risk:

The duty-to-report  liability to Bill imposes and its broad enforcement language could affect not only what articles we release/circulate to the Ghanaian public, but also comments by Ghanaian creatives, their social posts, or me sending them books that have LGBTQ+ content in them.

To summary my points:

Thing is, most writers in Africa, don’t appear to read lengthy texts or statutory documents so they may be blissfully unaware of the following:

• Ghana’s new bill if signed into law by their President will criminalise the "promotion," "sponsorship," and publication of LGBTQ+ content. It’ll effectively expose media houses, ALL authors, and journalists to potential fines and prison sentences if they produce, distribute, or broadcast material supportive of LGBTQ+ rights or identities.

  
  

• It might mean everyone - even heterosexual publishers - can’t indicate that ‘Efua from Accra is queer,’ in the author’s bio as this identity will no longer be recognised legally.

  
  

• We would not be freely able to publish poetry, essays or stories by LGBTQ+ Ghanaians advocating for or celebrating their lifestyles.

• We wouldn't be able to SEND to or DISTRIBUTE in Ghana, books by openly queer writers.

We cannot let this Bill become law.

A Lady with Green Hair