Donors will withdraw their funding if we criminalise LGBTQ+ acts – AIDS Commission

• AIDS Commission is worried anti-LGBTQ law could cause withdrawal of donor support

• HIV programme is largely funded by donors

• Parliament is considering the LGBTQ+ bill

The Ghana AIDS Commission has expressed worry over the possible withdrawal of funding by donors if the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill is passed before parliament.

This he adds could affect the care given to people living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana.

Appearing before Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, the Director-General of the commission, Steve Kyeremeh Atuahene, “donor funding for the HIV response covers HIV and TB services for men who have sex with men and transgenders. These health services have nothing to do with the activities the bill seeks to prescribe, but may be construed to be if the bill is passed in its current form.”

“Donors will withdraw their funding if they are criminalised by this bill. The HIV programme is largely funded by donors and the withdrawal of their funds will certainly jeopardise the HIV response,” he added.

A public hearing to consider memoranda on the Anti-Gay Bill began today, Thursday, 11 November 2021 but was suspended due to the number of memoranda received.

The bill is dubbed, ‘Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.”

During the first hearing, the Human Rights Coalition, Amnesty International, Advocates for Christ, and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council appeared before the committee.

The Committee has so far received over 140 memoranda from civil society groups and religious organizations on the bill.