Meet the Straight Ally Protesting Ghana’s Anti-LGBTQ Bill

ACCRA, Ghana — On Thursday, Texas citizen Kadiri Moro stood amid the turmoil of Accra, wearing pink shorts and a pink polo shirt. Accompanied by trumpeters and carrying a banner emblazoned with slogans like “Why should a society of evildoers judge others?” and “Justice begins where inequality ends!” he marched through the Ghanaian capital to protest a controversial bill that targets members of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters.

Moro is an unusual figure among LGBTQ+ rights activists in the West African coastal nation.

He is heterosexual, married to a woman and the father of six children. He is a teacher and a practicing Muslim. However, for months he has been organizing solo protests against the bill that criminalizes members of the LGBTQ+ community and its supporters, including by promoting and funding related activities and public displays of affection. Some people could face prison sentences of more than ten years.

The bill was passed by Ghana’s parliament earlier this year but was challenged in the Supreme Court.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has yet to sign the bill, which is currently under review. But he has refused to reject it.

“There are so many rights issues” surrounding the bill, Moro told The Associated Press.

“Homosexuality is no concern of anyone,” Moro said. “There are activities that people commit in the country that are worse than homosexual activities,” he added, citing adultery as an example. Parliament, he added, should be more concerned about “other crimes and pollution.”

The bill has drawn condemnation from human rights groups and some members of the international community, concerned about similar efforts by other African governments.

Proponents of the bill said it was aimed at protecting children and victims of abuse.

Same-sex sexual activity is already illegal in Ghana and carries a three-year prison sentence, but the new bill could jail people for more than a decade for activities such as public displays of affection and promoting and funding LGBTQ+ activities.

Since he began his protests, Moro has lost his job, received no support from the LGBTQ+ community and become the target of “very hostile attacks from the Muslim community,” he says.

But he is determined to continue. For him, it is about fighting injustice.

“I know I’m doing something God is asking me to do,” he said.

To highlight the hypocrisy of the bill, Moro presented a petition to parliament asking the government to withdraw foreign missions from countries where homosexuality is legal, if they find it “dirty,” he said.

At the entrance to Parliament, Kate Addo, the Parliament’s Director of Communications, received Moro’s petition on behalf of the Speaker of the House. She expressed satisfaction with his initiative.

“We live in a democratic country where what people do in their bedrooms is no one’s business,” Addo said. “However, we are also regulated by law.”

Even though Ghana’s president delayed signing the bill into law, activists said the debate alone had sparked an increase in physical and psychological violence against LGBTQ+ people.

Joseph Kobla Wemakor, executive director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana, said that “abuse, both psychological and physical, against members of the community has exploded” since the bill was introduced.

“As soon as people hear that you are part of this LGBTQ+ community, you are an enemy,” Wekamor said. “They are eager to hurt you, even lynch you, even kill you.”

“They forget that we are all human beings,” he added.

“It only takes one man to change the world,” he said. “And if he has started something like this, others will follow, because this bill is a reprehensible act.”

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