87% Of Ghanaians Against Public Meetings Of Lesbians And Gays

A total of 87% of Ghanaians say they oppose Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Intersexual (LGBTI) persons holding public meetings to discuss their issues.

Similarly, 91% of Moslems are also against allowing LGBTIs to hold public meetings.

In addition, 87%, 73.1% and 33.3% of Christians, traditionalists and atheists respectively are against LGBTI persons holding public meetings to discuss LGBTI issues.

Respondents in the Volta Region had the highest approval of 19.4% allowing LBTIs to hold public meetings to discuss LGBTI issues.

The above are findings from the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) survey on popular attitudes towards LGBTI in Ghana.

The findings also indicate that more than 97% of Ghanaians are aware the police have a responsibility to protect every citizen against mob injustice, and “strongly agree” or “agree” by 94% that any person who engages in mob activity should be brought to justice.

However, 20% “strongly disagree” or “disagree” that the police have a responsibility to protect LGBTI people against mob injustice.

The findings have it that about 80% of Ghanaians are very uncomfortable associating themselves with LGBTIs.

However, about 67% will receive emergency medical treatment from a nurse or doctor they perceive as LGBTI.

Thirty per cent of Christians, 40% of Moslems, and 50% of traditionalists will not receive emergency medical treatment from a nurse or medical doctor who is perceived as LGBTI, according to the findings.

The ACILA survey on LGBTI further indicates that 40% of Ghanaians who are 51 to 61 years will not receive emergency medical treatment from a nurse or medical doctor who is perceived as LGBTI, and about 13% of Ghanaians will “physically and verbally abuse or force an LGBTI to hide his or her identity if they discover a person who is LGBTI.

Majority of Ghanaians, about 45.3%, will “socially shun” an identified LGBTI, the findings has indicated.

Furthermore, more than 75% of Ghanaians applaud homophobic statements by state officials, religious leaders or influential people in society, and only 24.5% say homophobic statements should be condemned.

Thirty-six per cent of Ghanaians are of the opinion that LGBTIs should be discriminated against job search while 10% and 9.16% are of the opinion that they should be discriminated against religious association and public appointments, respectively.

Finally, more than 54% of Ghanaians say expelling students perceived to be LGBTI should be promoted.

On November 7, 2017, Ghana appeared before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a review of its human rights records under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism.

ACILA is monitoring Ghana’s acceptance of the recommendation to provide equal protection of the law against violence and discrimination for LGBTI people in Ghana.

As part of this exercise, ACILA embarked on a study in June 2017 to gauge Ghanaians’ attitudes towards LGBTI issues and provide comprehensive scientific public opinion data to engender informed discussion for effective policymaking.

During the review and follow-up discussion by the Working Group, Ghana rejected recommendations to legalise same-sex marriage or decriminalise consensual sexual relations, but accepted recommendations to provide Equal Protection of the Law from violence and discrimination against LGBTI people in accordance with Ghana’s domestic law and international human rights law obligations.

Some of the recommendations Ghana accepted are to take the steps necessary to protect LGBTI persons from violence and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ghana accepted to ensure that victims of discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity have access to rehabilitation and remedy, and that all perpetrators are be punished

The country also accepted to take measures to fight against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as continue to implement the discrimination reporting system in order to tackle stigmatisation and discrimination of the most vulnerable groups.

The survey was a representative sample of adults in five regions of Ghana.

These are Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Volta and Western, with a sample size of 1,200 respondents.

The 1,200 respondents were located in 107 Enumeration Areas (EAs) spread across 72 urban and 35 peri-urban/rural areas in the five regions, and fieldwork was conducted from June 4 to 20, 2018.

The selection of the EAs was carried out using the nationwide Enumeration Areas from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

All respondents were randomly selected. Every adult citizen of voting age 18 years and older had an equal chance of being selected.

Sample distribution across five regions and urban-rural areas was based on their proportion to the share of the national population.