Ghana's Pentecostal Council Says Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill Falls Short of Expectations

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, one of the country’s most influential religious bodies, has publicly declared that the recently passed Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill does not go far enough, adding a new dimension to a legislative debate that has divided opinion across Ghanaian society.

In a statement addressed to Parliament and signed by its president, Dr Eric Nyamekye, the Council said the Bill in its current form falls short of its expectations and is not sufficiently robust to protect what it described as time-tested family values. The position, released on Thursday and copied to the Ghana News Agency, reflects a rare instance of a major religious institution criticising legislation that many of its members had long championed.

The Council called for the reinstatement of an earlier version of the Bill passed by the previous Parliament, describing it as more comprehensive and better suited to address the moral and cultural concerns at stake. Its prior endorsement for presidential assent is a testament to its legislative merit, the statement said, and GPCC strongly recommends that it be reinstated and passed without further delay.

The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill has been one of the most contentious pieces of legislation in Ghana’s recent parliamentary history. First introduced in 2021, it seeks to criminalise LGBTQ+ advocacy and activities, impose penalties on those who promote or fund such activities, and affirm a particular vision of Ghanaian family life. The Bill passed its third reading in Parliament earlier this year, though it has yet to receive presidential assent.

Religious groups across the spectrum, including Christian, Muslim, and traditional leaders, have broadly supported the Bill’s underlying premise. But the GPCC’s statement reveals that consensus on the legislation’s scope and enforcement mechanisms is less uniform than it might appear. By publicly criticising the current version, the Council is signalling that the Bill as passed may not satisfy the very constituencies that lobbied hardest for its introduction.

The Council reaffirmed its solidarity with the government, Parliament, and the people of Ghana regarding the Bill’s passage. It noted that, regardless of any domestic or international scrutiny the legislative process might attract, it remained committed to upholding the country’s values, sovereignty, and the moral well-being of its communities.

The statement also reflected broader anxieties about external pressure. International human rights organisations and several Western governments have expressed concern about the Bill, with some warning of potential economic consequences. The GPCC’s insistence on sovereignty suggests that any perceived watering-down of the legislation to accommodate foreign critics would be met with resistance from within.

The call to revert to an earlier version raises practical questions. The previous Parliament passed a version of the Bill that included broader prohibitions and stiffer penalties. Reinstating it would require legislative manoeuvring and could further delay presidential assent, a process that has already stretched months beyond what supporters anticipated.

For now, the Bill remains in a kind of legislative limbo, passed by Parliament but not yet signed into law. The GPCC’s intervention ensures that whatever emerges from the process will face scrutiny not only from international observers and civil liberties advocates but from the very religious establishment that helped bring it into being.

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