Ghana cracks down on gays (all gays to be arrested)

[Ian David]

Source: Sydney Star Observer

Ghana’s Western Region Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo MP has ordered the immediate arrest of all homosexuals in the country’s west.

Aidooo has tasked Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations and security forces to round up the country’s gay population and has called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspect of being homosexuals.

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society,” he said.

The move by the Minister follows months of campaigning by the Christian Council of Ghana which last week called on Ghanaians not to vote for any politician who believes in the rights of homosexuals.

Muslims and Christians in the Western Region have been staging protests ever since a local media report claimed there were around 8000 homosexuals and lesbians in the district.

Read more: http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2011/07/21/ghana-cracks-down-on-gays/57436

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See also:

Ghana's Western Regional Minister Orders All Gays Arrested
http://www.towleroad.com/2011/07/ghanas-western-regional-minister-orders-all-gays-arrested.html

Ghana Regional Minister Orders All Gays Arrested

<snip>

This is worrying, not only for the human rights disaster this roundup would pose, but it would also represent a huge betrayal for those 8,000 who signed up at an HIV/AIDS workshop funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). According to Ghanaian radio, that report sparked a series of religious demonstrations with the Muslim and Christian communities in the Central and Western regions.

The website of AfricanActivist has background on the story. Homosexuality is currently a misdemeanor in Ghana. Ghana’s president John Evans Atta Mills denies reports that he intends to institute a new anti-gay law, after witnesses claimed that he told one religious gathering that he would “ do something about the homosexuality menace in Ghana.” Last June, Ghanaian vice president John Dramani Mahama told delegates at a high level UN meeting on HIV/AIDS that it was essential to include Ghana’s LGBT community in its strategy to fight HIV/AIDS. He also acknowledged that current attitudes toward gay people make that strategy difficult. With the latest calls for mass arrests and the rising prospect of violence, that strategy is now in serious jeopardy, along with the safety and security of thousands of citizens of the West African nation.

More:
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/07/19/35244?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BoxTurtleBulletin+%28Box+Turtle+Bulletin%29

[joeybee12]

1. Fuckaing amazing and appalling...knr

[LetTimmySmoke]

2. How will the the U.S. respond?

I hope it's something more than the usual tacit approval, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Safetykitten]

10. Hi! Rick Warren here. I am sure we can handle this. I am after all the person that gave a great

speech. And of course there is over-reaction to this, that can be explained.

[LetTimmySmoke]

49. Hi Rick Warren! Can you twist the Purpose-Driven-Knife even further?

Gay couples are getting marriage rights in NY tomorrow - better do something!

[Ter]

42. What do you want us to do, bomb them?

Please, no more wars unless we are attacked.

[Mr. Sinister]

46. approval or murder

Hopefully there is some diplomatic response available between those extremes that express our human values.

[LetTimmySmoke]

48. I was thinking diplomatic condemnation and the threat of an embargo, but okay.

[bowens43]

3. Don't you just love religion and it's believers?

nt

[Yo_Mama]

38. Hah. Read about what Communist societies did to gays

Under Stalin it was five years hard labor. A lot of people did not survive.
http://books.google.com/books?id=RBO6fSGuj34C&pg=PA521&lpg=PA521&dq=Communist+russia+treatment+of+homosexuals&source=bl&ots=u7bUcE0n5L&sig=NXDgY64Zvvf2d4qf4AKz8fNf8W8&hl=en&ei=OZopTtjaCsu_tge1-KTXAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Communist%20russia%20treatment%20of%20homosexuals&f=false

There's more to this than religion, and as global society has grown up on the topic communist societies have tended to liberalize as well.

Chinese Communists kind of went nuts on the subject:
http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/china/ins0301_china_homosexuals.pdf

Castro recently said he regretted what had been done to homosexuals under his regime:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0902/1224278049617.html

[dropkickpa]

44. And Hitler was a christian. Get over it.

And I know, Godwin yada yada yada, but christians ALWAYS resort to the fucking stalin shit, conveniently forgetting that Hitler was a christian, all in an effort to completely avoid addressing the issue at hand. Stalin, Castro, et al have fuck all to do with Ghana, but it IS a christian group that instigated this bullshit, no matter how much anyone wants to try redirecting people to the shiny in the corner. Doesn't change the fact that a christian organization has been pounding on this issue in Ghana for months.

Fundamental Muslim group are more than happy to jump on this bandwagon, doesn't change the the fact that the CCG is the instigator and sustainer of this. It is religiously motivated intolerance and persecution spearheaded by the dominant christian organization in the country.

[naaman fletcher]

4. No doubt,

this is the result of incitement by US fundies as it was in Uganda.

[buckrogers1965]

5. Step two is to murder all those people.

Either outright or through neglect. That is always what happens after they start rounding up people based on race, religion or sexual orientation.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Country must need more blackmail opportunities.

[RebelOne]

7. Seems like a witch hunt to me.

Someone who may have a grudge against their neighbors will accuse them of being gay.

[totodeinhere]

8. How in this day and age can something like that be happening?

We need to immediately suspend all foreign aid to that sorry excuse for a country, and if they don't rescind the policy break off diplomatic relations.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. how in this day and age...

can people respect the bible and koran? Mindboggling.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. The Bible and Koran are just handy excuses

for people to push their bigotry. This has nothing to do with religion.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. A large portion...

of believers believe every word of the koran and bible. The koran and bible are the handbooks for two abrahamic religions. Religion has everything to do with these peoples worldview.

[hifiguy]

45. No, it has a LOT to do with religion

If it weren't for the hatred and intolerance preached by the Abrahamic religions, what to you think the chances would be of this kind of insanity spontaneously generating on its own?

Religion is one of the worst things that has ever happened to humanity.

Want a system of ethics? Try Confucianism or, especially Buddhism. No angry gods to appease there.

[Nihil]

31. How? Because "this day and age" is a sham, a fig-leaf used to maintain the "us & them" difference.

> How in this day and age can something like that be happening?

The people involved are still human and probably have more in common
with your neighbours than you do. The only difference is that your
current circumstances aren't requiring a scapegoat.

"It has been said that civilization is twenty-four hours and two meals
away from barbarism." ("Good Omens", Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett)

[Kurska]

34. What they are doing is plain and clear to everyone.

Attempt to excuse it away, they own their own actions and their actions are disgusting. Not everyone in hard times has to beat up on a minority.

[No Elephants]

32. ......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Ghana

[snooper2]

41. Same way another shithole of a country

Still has slaves

[Bluenorthwest]

9. This is a pogrom. Genocide in the making all for 'God in the mix'

And the 'Christians' of America will do nothing, as will our government.

[felix_numinous]

11. They need an underground railroad

Iraqi underground railroad:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/25/iraq-gay-rights

Spanish activist says '6000 homosexuals escape from Africa" every year:

http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2011/05/spanish-activist-says-6000-homosexuals.html

Iran to Turkey to Freedom: The Gay Underground Railroad:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/13/984864/-Iran-to-Turkey-to-Freedom:-The-Gay-Underground-Railroad

It is heartbreaking to read about, I wish there was a way to help get them to safety :(

[Dappleganger]

12. Why are people standing by while the holocaust begins again?

[Pab Sungenis]

20. Begins?

It's been going on for decades. In dozens of places. With different victims in each.

[Scottybeamer70]

13. Calling Hillary........human rights speech needed....STAT....

[No Elephants]

33. Hitting them in their economy, if we can, might be much more effective.

[Snoutport]

14. k & r

[valerief]

15. Horrible. So much hate and violence. nt

[4saken]

16. Their society has some serious issues, and it isn't about their sexuality.

This kind of repression, and these people living in fear as "illegal" citizens only breeds divisiveness in the society. The irrationality of appeals to tradition, culture and religion, is allowing them to disregard why we actually conclude things to be right/wrong.

[lunatica]

18. This is horrendous!

The entire world should rise up and object loudly to this!

[JackRiddler]

22. Absolutely repulsive. Speechless. Horrible.

[roamer65]

23. These "Christians" should be rounded up and dealt with...

[totodeinhere]

26. Muslims and Christians. n/t

[DeSwiss]

24. K&R n/t

[Blue Owl]

25. Could Michele Bachmann be their great white hope?

Sounds to me like they have a few things in common.

[Blasphemer]

27. WTF?

With the battles we wage for equality here in the USA, it is easy to forget about the struggles of our gay brothers and sisters who live in countries where the laws are even more draconian. Rounding up and jailing gays and making statements about the "homosexuality menace" brings to mind Hitler and his concentration camps. Can a gay person from Ghana get political refugee status? I fear for the lives of these persecuted men and women.

[queerart]

28. Call Them What They Are For Fuck's Sake.......

Terrorists........

Religious Terrorists.......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miULdI-qocg

[Odin2005]

29. The Christo-Fascists are driving Africa back to the Dark Ages.

[Dogtown]

30. K&R n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

35. It pains me deeply to see this from Ghana.

It is one of the jewels of West Africa, and a tremendously civilized nation of friendly people. I did not know that christian extremism was so prevalent there these days.

[crim son]

36. I've met many Ghanians and they are truly lovely people.

This is sickening, literally sickening.

[Yo_Mama]

37. What are they going to do with them after they arrest them?

The Final Solution?

Doesn't the UN have some way to put pressure on these people.

[Evasporque]

39. Tea Party has this plank...nt

[KamaAina]

40. Are U.S. fundies behind this like they are in Uganda?

I wouldn't be a bit surprised. :eyes:

[kestrel91316]

43. Genocide. It's the trendy thing, I guess.

[BreweryYardRat]

47. Arrange mysterious "accidents" for every high-ranking member of the Christian Council of Ghana.

And for every Ghanaian politician endorsed by them. Starting with Paul Aidoo.