What's in Ghana's new anti-LGBTQ+ bill?

What's in Ghana's new anti-LGBTQ+ bill?

From Focus on Africa by BBC World Service

June 2, 2026 · 23 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Ghana's new anti-LGBTQ+ bill and its implications, alongside a controversial sports event related to performance enhancing drugs.

Ghana’s President John Mahama has said the recently passed anti-LGBTQ+ bill will undergo a review by the Attorney General and legal advisers at the presidency before he decides to sign it into law. The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, was approved by parliament last Friday. The legislation proposes a three-year prison sentence for same-sex relations and up to five years imprisonment for promoting LGBTQ+ activities. The law has attracted mixed reaction within the country. This is not the first time Ghana has come up with such a proposal. A previous bill approved in 2024 recommended stricter punishment but was never signed into law. Also, we hear about a controversial multi-million dollar sports event allowing participating athletes to use performance enhancing drugs, usually banned in international competitions. Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna Producer: Bella Twine, Priya Sippy and Ayuba lliya Technical producer: David Nzau Senior Ppoducer: Keikantse Shumba Editors: Charles Gitonga and Maryam Abdalla

People in this episode

Host: Nkechi Ogbonna

Topics covered

  • anti-LGBTQ+ legislation
  • Ghana
  • human rights
  • sports
  • performance enhancing drugs

Keywords

  • Ghana
  • anti-LGBTQ+ bill
  • John Mahama
  • Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill
  • performance enhancing drugs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC World Service, Attorney General, Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill

Places: Ghana

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