Ghanaian musician and media personality Deborah Owusu-Bonsu, popularly known in showbiz as Sister Derby, has described the ongoing national conversation around LGBTQ issues as a distraction from more urgent problems facing the country, including illegal mining (galamsey), deforestation, flooding, and other socio-economic challenges.

Speaking in a recent interview, the award-winning entertainer said the debate around LGBTQ rights has become one of Ghana’s most dominant talking points, often shifting attention away from critical national issues that require immediate action.

“Ghana’s most passionate issue to distract us from galamsey, from deforestation, from flooding, from maternal death, and so many others,” she said.

Sister Derby argued that the strong opposition to LGBTQ identities is largely influenced by religion rather than traditional African cultural values. According to her, her personal exploration of African history suggests that queer individuals were historically present and accepted in various African societies.

“The sad thing about the whole thing, in my opinion, is that all this confusion and division amongst us as a people is from religion. I see it that way because I’ve read from our African history and our roots, which of course the colonizers didn’t want to document enough of because it didn’t portray us the way they wanted us to be portrayed as Black people and as Africans. But the papers and the notes out there about African history are that our forefathers, whether Ashantis or Ewes, were living in harmony with queer people,” she said.

Reflecting on past public health crises, Sister Derby noted that Ghana and other African countries have previously battled diseases such as cholera, malaria, COVID-19, and Ebola, yet queer communities were never identified as a national threat during those periods.

She further suggested that the renewed intensity around anti-LGBTQ discussions gained political momentum around late 2020 and early 2021, when Ghana’s two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), became more visibly involved in the debate.

“Right now, the whole thing has become like the two major political parties just trying to show each other and pepper each other,” she said.

To illustrate her concerns, she recounted an incident in her neighbourhood involving a masculine-presenting woman who was allegedly harassed by soldiers questioning her gender identity.

“When this bill hula balu started in 2020, early 2021, there was a lady in my area who is naturally boyish looking. Soldiers in my area caned her, asking her if she was a boy or a girl,” she recounted.

Sister Derby, known for her long-standing advocacy for LGBTQ rights and inclusion, maintained that being queer should not be treated as a societal problem or used as a basis for discrimination. Her remarks add to the ongoing national debate surrounding Ghana’s proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation, which continues to generate strong public, political, and social reactions across the country.

Watch the interview below:

@asempa_fm The LGBTQ+ Bill has become one of the most effective distractions from the pressing issue of galamsey in Ghana – @sisterdeborah #asempashowbizreview #AsempaFM ♬ original sound – ASEMPA FM

Source: Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang