The Ghanaian Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed challenges to a bill that would further criminalize LGBTQ people and penalize allyship.

Lawmakers on Feb. 28 approved the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill. Two lawyers, Amanda Odoi and Richard Sky, challenged it.

Outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo had previously said he would not sign the bill into law until the Supreme Court issued its ruling. His successor, President-elect John Dramani Mahama, will take office on Jan. 7.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 10 honored Ebenezer Peegah, executive director of Rightify Ghana, a Ghanaian LGBTQ advocacy group, and six other human rights activists from around the world during a ceremony at the State Department.

Blinken noted the pending Supreme Court ruling — and discrimination and violence that LGBTQ Ghanaians continue to face — before he presented Peegah with the Secretary of State’s Human Rights Defender Award.

“In Ghana, vigilante groups use social media platforms to organize mobs to attack LGBTQI+ people, as well as to entrap, to blackmail, to harass them,” said Blinken. “As these attacks increase, Ghana’s Supreme Court is considering legislation that would criminalize people for identifying as LGBTQI+, as well as threaten Ghanaians’ constitutionally protected freedoms of speech, press, and assembly.”  

A Catholic cardinal in Ghana has reiterated his support for LGBTQ people.

Peter Turkson has been vocal against the criminalization of LGBTQ people, advocates, and organizations. He is also among the few African cardinals who have supported the Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust) document that Pope Francis released last year.

The document offers a narrow set of conditions under which a priest or deacon can offer a blessing to a same-sex couple or unmarried heterosexual couples.

In an interview with TV3 News, a Ghanaian television station, Turkson expressed his grave concerns over the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill currently before the Supreme Court.

The bill, among other things, would further criminalize LGBTQ people and make advocacy on their behalf illegal. 

Lawmakers in February approved the measure. President Nana Akufo-Addo has said he will not sign it until the Supreme Court issues its ruling.

Turkson said homosexuality is not new to Ghanaian culture and those who identify as LGBTQ should be treated like any other person.

“Who controls how one is born? And if one is born this way, how does it in itself constitute a crime? You criminalize them for what,” he asked.

Turkson also said there should be respect for diverse views, urging against the criminalization of identity.

Father Peter Knox from the Jesuit Institute in South Africa said there is an almost what he described as a neurotic denial of the fact there are African people who are attracted to people of the same sex.

“The fact that people of the same sex enter into a permanent, loving, supportive, stable, fruitful relationships is beyond the imagination of many Africans. The very notion runs contrary to what many theologians and pastors claim is African culture,” said Knox.

Knox also questioned why homosexuality is regarded as a Western concept, noting South Africa offers asylum to many LGBTQ Africans who are fleeing persecution from their countries of origin.

“For decades South Africa has recognized the refugee status of people who are persecuted or whose lives are endangered because of their sexual orientation,” he noted. “For those who do not try to make it to Europe, South Africa is often a second-best destination.” 

Knox noted one South African parish has a support group for LGBTQ parishioners.

“It is noteworthy that none of the members of the group are so-called Europeans. They all come from African countries,” he said. “One also hopes for more prophetic protection of a severely marginalized group on this continent.” 

Cardinal Maurice Piat of Mauritius, along with Turkson, is the only other of the continent’s 22 Catholic cardinals who has spoken publicly in support of LGBTQ people. Non-Catholic officials in Africa have largely dismissed Francis’s document.

Cardinal Stephen Ameyu, archbishop of Juba in South Sudan, has said the church’s role is to respond to sinners with mercy. He questioned the blessings of same-sex marriages last December during a press conference at a Christmas event.

“The church takes mercy first. That’s why sometimes we are concerned about people who are criminals, people who have killed people. We turn to them in mercy,” said Ameyu. “So, the state of life that somebody lives does not exclude one from the concern of the church. Be merciful to others provide services to others who need the services, and the church can do a lot in order to convince people in their state of sins to come back to the church and be converted.”

Francis in 2023 visited South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.