giving ghanaian lesbian women a voice

By MacDarling Cobbinah

July 13, 2005: For the first time in Ghana's gay and lesbian community, the experiences of lesbian women were shared in public between lesbians.

"Giving lesbian women a voice 2" held on the 1st of May 2005 was a continuation of the initiative which was launched on the 24th of April in Osu - Accra.

For the first time in Ghana's gay and lesbian community, the experiences of lesbian women were shared in public between lesbians. The trend in the past has been for outsiders to discuss African lesbian experiences from a third person's perspective.

The current practice, which is believed to be widespread in Ghana, is for lesbian women to marry and give birth. This would most certainly impress family members and friends and thus eliminate the prospect of being called names and ostracized by the society.

During this workshop, many participants spoke about how the perception by Christians that gays and lesbians are evil and that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because homosexuality was making it difficult for most of them to come to terms with their own sexuality. Ghana, like the rest of West Africa, is a highly religious country.

Further discussions centred around the newly created Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) and the All African Rights Initiative (AARI) and how local organizations can link with these organizations to access resources and capacity-building tools.

Most delegates expressed a wish for the heterosexual community to accept lesbian women in Ghana. It was also noted that the lesbian community is very poor as most are not working. Delegates pointed out that this void could be filled by organizations like CEPEHRG by developing skills training courses for the community.

The next meeting will explore different programmes to upscale skills for lesbian women.