Activist groups in Ghana are campaigning for the release of 21 people arrested last week for attending an LGBTQ event in the southeastern city of Ho. Sixteen women and four men were arrested on Thursday after the police stormed a hotel where a conference for LGBTQI people was being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome LGBTQI members were gathering in the region for a conference aimed at championing their activities,\u201d local police spokesman Sergeant Prince Dogbatse said. \u201cWe went to the conference grounds. We arrested 21 suspected LGBTQI members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A court in the Ho district on Friday ordered the accused, who were charged with \u201cunlawful assembly,\u201d to be remanded in police custody. They will appear in court on June 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since their arrest, an online campaign with the hashtag #ReleaseThe21 has gone viral on social media. \u201cWe are calling on the Ghana Police Service to #ReleaseThe21 persons arrested\u2026 for holding a training program,\u201d rights group Righty Ghana wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said the conference, which has been described as an \u201cunlawful assembly,\u201d was held \u201cto empower some LGBTQI persons on various topics including training some as paralegals to document and report human rights violations being experienced by LGBTQI Ghanaians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said the press \u201cteamed up with the police to storm the meeting location, started taking images, took their belongings and arrested them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Ghana, gay sex is a criminal offence and punishable by up to three years in jail. Though no one has been prosecuted for same-sex relations in years, human rights activists say LGBT+ people are discriminated against, and often face death threats and abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In February, a community centre for LGBTQ+ people in the West African country was shut down by security forces just three weeks after opening. Religious leaders, politicians and anti-gay organizations had called on the government to close the centre, which was operated by local charity LGBT+ Rights Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has said same-sex marriage will not be legalized under his presidency. \u201cI have said it before, and let me stress it again, that it will not be under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo that same-sex marriage will be legal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actor Idris Elba and model Naomi Campbell recently joined some 65 other British celebrities, designers and politicians, mostly of Ghanaian heritage, in signing an open letter in support of gay rights in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 67 signatories of the open letter published on social media said they were worried about the developments in Ghana and called on the country\u2019s president and other political leaders to provide protection to the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although some African countries are slowly accepting same-sex marriages, many are still very categorical in their denunciation of the idea. Some have even made it a capital offence punishable by death \u2013 Mauritania, Sudan, southern Somalia and northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: mynewsghana.net<\/p>\n\n\n\n