Ghana’s LGBTQ community is living in fear after the country’s parliament approved a sweeping bill that criminalises the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities and identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, rights groups have warned.

The legislation, which was passed on Friday, mandates prison sentences of three to 10 years.

The human sexual rights and family values bill is expected to be signed into law by the Ghanaian president, John Dramani Mahama.

Community organisations say LGBTQ+ people are worried they could lose their homes, jobs or access to healthcare, with most already reviewing and deleting their online posts for fear of their identity being revealed.

Leila Lariba, director of One Love Sisters Ghana, an organisation that supports lesbian and bisexual women, said: “People are panicking and scared. The new bill affects where you are staying; it can get you evicted; it can lead you to lose your job.

“No matter how safe you think you are,” she said, “you do not know who’s ready to talk.”

“We have advised people to prioritise their safety online and offline. If they have content on their social media pages that could put them at risk, we are encouraging them to remove it. People need to be cautious about what they post because they don’t know how this law could be used against them,” Lariba added.

Same-sex relations were already banned under British colonial law in Ghana but the prohibition was rarely enforced. The new legislation expands criminal liability and is designed to affect both LGBTQ+ people and their allies, such as anyone who provides services, support or advocacy.

The new bill imposes prison terms of up to three years for identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, and up to 10 years for those found guilty of “promotion of, propagation of, advocacy for, support or funding of” LGBTQ-related activities, as well as provisions requiring people to report suspected LGBTQ+ individuals.

Amendments approved by MPs exempt healthcare professionals and lawyers from prosecution for providing services to LGBTQ+ individuals but activists have pointed out that the stigma created by the legislation was likely to deter people from seeking help, including around HIV testing or discrimination.

“We believe the president will sign it,” said Lariba. “People out there are going to use this as a stepping stone to maltreat people and harass people. It’s already happening, but with this bill being passed, it’s going to be higher than it was before.”

Ghana’s parliament approved similar legislation in 2024, but the former president Nana Akufo-Addo left office without signing it.

In an address to parliament, the current bill’s sponsor, the Rev John Ntim Fordjour claimed the proposed law would protect Ghanaian family and cultural values.

However, Ebenezer Peegah, director of Rightify Ghana, an LGBTQ+ rights organisation, said fundamental freedoms were at risk, with the impact extending far beyond same-sex relationships.

“This bill is very far-reaching: it criminalises identity; it criminalises services, including the operations of civil society groups and doctors giving care to the LGBTQ community and those that promote same-sex [relations], like journalists [and] sellers of sex toys. It also criminalises even not reporting people,” he said.

“Just this year alone, we have had 80 cases from our members that include those who have been exposed, abused or evicted. Our colleagues are asking how to get out of Ghana, but we also do not know how to help them because the international community no longer cares, especially the Trump government,” he added.

The bill comes as Ghana this week hosts the fourth African inter-parliamentary conference on family values and sovereignty in Accra from 3-6 June. It is the first time the conference will be held in Ghana, after three years in which it was hosted by Uganda. The notoriously harsh anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Uganda, which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni shortly after the inaugural conference in 2023.

Ipas, an international reproductive rights organisation, said the conferences had become platforms to influencepolicies related to sexual and reproductive health rights across Africa.

The organisation also pointed to growing collaboration and influence between parliamentarians from different African countries, especially Uganda and Ghana, including efforts to strengthen coordination on “family values” legislation.

Peegah said the Ghanaian bill was passed as “a gift” to the conference, which will propose an African charter on family, sovereignty and values, a treaty that rejects “harmful gender ideologies” as foreign imports that threaten African morality.

“We know that this is not an attack only on LGBT communities in Ghana,” he said. “It is an attack on the entire LGBT community in Africa. That’s why we believe it will quickly be signed, just like the Ugandan president did when they hosted this same conference.”

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been on the rise across west Africa. Senegal introduced a law in March that doubled the maximum prison term to 10 years for sexual acts by same-sex couples and criminalised the “promotion” of homosexuality. Last year Burkina Faso, a country previously seen as relatively safe for the gay community, passed a law criminalising homosexuality.

A coalition of organisations led by Rightify is preparing to challenge the Ghanaian decision in court, based on the undue speed at which the bill passed through its second and third readings, and because the quorum of MPs had not been met when the vote was held.

The proposed law has also been criticised by international rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, which said it put people’s lives at risk while also “encouraging citizens to surveil and denounce one another”.