(13 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Accra, Ghana – 12 September 2024
1. Various of Texas Kadir Moro marching through Accra towards Ghana’s Parliament House to protest against an anti-LGBTQ+ bill that was passed earlier this year
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Texas Kadir Moro, activist:
“If you think your culture or your religion is one that you cherish. When you come closer to them, you are facing them (the LGBTQ+ community), you will be able to get across your message. But to say that they are sinners and they should go to prison, when you yourself, you are also a sinner? Is it because they are a minority?”
3. Moro stands before Ghana’s Parliament House
4. Various of signs Moro carried on his march reading (English) "Justice begins where inequality ends. Let’s join forces to fight inequality. Judging others on their sins is simply an act of arrogance and pride!
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Wemakor, Executive Director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana:
“If you are talking about homophobic attacks on the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana, ever since the issue broke out, issues of abuse, both psychological and physical, have skyrocketed.”
6. Moro walking
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Texas Kadir Moro, activist:
“At times, with the mosque, they come to you and they speak ill about you. I tell them: ‘You don’t understand the religion which you are. And you don’t read the Quran. Read it well and see. God is saying that when there is injustice, speak to it.’ It doesn’t matter who is affected. Because it’s not you, you are quiet. Tomorrow it will be you, and nobody will speak for you.’”
8. Various of Moro marching towards Accra’s Independence Square
STORYLINE:
A Ghanaian man concluded a series of solo demonstrations for LGBTQ+ rights in Accra Thursday, months after an anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed in Ghana’s parliament.
Texas Kadir Moro began marching as the bill, which increases penalties for same-sex conduct – already illegal in Ghana – stalled on President Nana Akufo-Addo’s desk.
Since being passed in February, the bill has faced legal challenges to its constitutionality that have left it languishing in the Supreme Court.
The bill also criminalizes advocating for LGBTQ+ people and failing to report them to the authorities.
Moro said he is not a member of the LGBTQ+ community but is standing up for what he believes is right. He claims the law is discriminatory.
“To say that they are sinners and they should go to prison, when you yourself, you are also a sinner? Is it because they are a minority?” he said from Accra’s Independence Square at the end of his one-man march.
Moro also marched in Accra in April and in Cape Coast in July, wearing pink, he says, as a symbol of love.
The bill has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community but is supported by many politicians and religious leaders in Ghana.
Joseph Wemakor, the executive director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana, said that
“issues of abuse, both psychological and physical, have skyrocketed” since controversy emerged around the passing of the bill.
President Akufo-Addo has avoided signing the bill, claiming that the various legal challenges brought against it should be resolved in court first.
But despite the outcry from international partners and human rights organizations around the world, Akufo-Addo is under immense pressure from politicians and citizens within the country to sign the bill.
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