A forwarded message making the rounds on WhatsApp claims that “the cartoon channel, Nickelodeon, with effect from yesterday, Saturday 20th August, 2022, has started showing a gay couple on one of their series called The Loud House.”
Verdict: Misleading
Explanation
Ghana is currently at a junction in its history where conversations surrounding whether or not to legalize the activities of the LGBTQ+ community that is gradually emerging in the country.
As president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given a clear indication of where Ghana stands in all of this talk about gay rights and their place in his country.
Speaking in an interview with Gulf news channel, Al Jazeera, in 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated that the subject of homosexuality was not on Ghana’s agenda.
“At the moment, I don’t feel and I don’t see that in Ghana there is that strong current of opinion that is saying that this is something that we need to even deal with. It is not so far a matter which is on the agenda,” he stated.
He, however, added that its snowball effect will soon reach Africa.
But another man who has given the subject even more impetus and attention has been the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam Nartey George.
The MP, together with other colleagues on both sides of parliament, are sponsoring a Private Members Bill to officially criminalize activities that fall within the scope of homosexuality in the country.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill is proposing a law in Ghana that would introduce wide-ranging restrictions on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
But even more subtle have been the use of media to promote some of these practices that currently remain a debatable subject of being illegal.
In this factcheck, a forwarded message with an accompanying video circulating on WhatsApp, and which seemed to have been shared with parents in Ghana, indicates that there has been an introduction of gay couple scenes in cartoons being shown by Nickelodeon, a global children’s channel airing in Ghana.
The message reads in part: “This is to bring to your notice that the cartoon channel, Nickelodeon, with effect from yesterday, Saturday, 20th August, 2022, has started showing gay couple on one of their series called The Loud House.
“Please let's always check on what our children are watching. God bless us all ...I received this and checked online. It's true!
“Nickelodeon the Children's channel is currently running a cartoon series to promote Homosexuality among children. The title of the cartoon is "Loud House".
“In 2014 they produced a cartoon titled "The Legend of Korra" to promote bisexuality.
“The series is the first Nickelodeon show in history to feature a married same-sex couple.”
Verification
GhanaWeb FactCheck’s independent checks show that indeed, there is a clip from a children’s cartoon that has made its way online.
The clip, after GhanaWeb’s verification, was determined to have rather been from a content that is showing on Netflix but not titled Loud House as the forwarded message is purporting.
The Loud House is a running series on Nickelodeon but it currently does not have any gay couples featured in it, although there is a character by the name, Luna Loud, who is a bisexual.
The video clip making rounds and being touted as being a clip from The Loud House on Nickelodeon is rather a clip from Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, the GhanaWeb FactCheck desk concludes that the claim is not accurate and hence, is misleading.
Watch the latest episode of People and Places on GhanaWeb TV below:
EA/IA
These cartoon characters have been purported to be from a Nickelodeon series