Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith spent years helping lead the campaign to criminalize LGBTQ+ Ghanaians. Last week, in an interview with the BBC, the Anglican Primate of West Africa said he no longer supports locking anyone up for being gay, even as Ghana's parliament-approved anti-LGBTQ+ law awaits the president's signature.
A reversal years in the making
Ben-Smith is the spiritual leader of nearly two million Anglicans across Ghana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone, one of the most influential clergy in the global Anglican Communion. In late 2021, he led Ghanaian bishops in publicly backing a bill that would have jailed anyone who simply identified as LGBTQ+ for up to five years, drawing public criticism from then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. In 2024, Ben-Smith signed a statement calling homosexuality "unrighteousness in the sight of God" and citing Leviticus 20:13 to justify the church's push for criminalization.
That history is why his BBC interview landed as news. "Our point in our province is very clear: we do not support the criminalisation of gay persons," he said. "The whole concept of… LGBT people, it's not new here. They have lived in this country for a long time, and we've lived with them. They've never been a problem."
They have lived in this country for a long time, and we've lived with them. They've never been a problem.
Archbishop Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith
What the law would do
Ghana's Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill passed parliament earlier this year and now awaits President John Mahama's signature. It punishes same-sex acts with up to three years in prison and adds three to five years for anyone who "promotes, sponsors or supports" LGBTQ+ activity. A "duty to report" clause threatens up to three years in prison for anyone, including friends and family members, who fails to report LGBTQ+ conduct to police; journalists, medical staff and lawyers are exempted. The law builds on a colonial-era statute already criminalizing "unnatural carnal knowledge."
The BBC interviewer pressed Ben-Smith on the law's human cost, noting that Ghanaians have sought asylum in the UK citing fear of violence, and that church endorsement of criminalization has functioned as a green light for discrimination. Ben-Smith didn't dispute the point. "So I think that that's why we're making this point very clear," he said. "The church does not support people to be criminalized."
Faith without the criminal code
Ben-Smith hasn't changed his theology. He told the BBC, "We believe that God created male and female," reaffirming the church's traditional teaching, and added that LGBTQ+ people are still "all children of God" whom "God loves." It's a distinction between doctrine and law that plenty of religious institutions have wrestled with, but it's a notable shift for a bishop who once argued scripture justified state punishment.
Why it matters
Ghana is one of five West African nations currently tightening laws against homosexuality, alongside Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal, but it's the only one that's majority Christian rather than Muslim, with roughly 71 percent of the population identifying as Christian. That makes the church's posture unusually consequential: when Ghana's bishops backed criminalization in 2021 and 2022, they gave lawmakers religious cover. Ben-Smith's public break, however partial, removes some of that cover just as Mahama decides whether to sign. The United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all urged Ghana to scrap the bill, and the Human Rights Campaign has called it "a cruel bill that violates the fundamental rights of LGBTQI+ people and allies."
MQ's Take
We're glad to see any religious leader walk back support for jailing people over who they love, and Ben-Smith's reversal is meaningful in a region where church endorsement has translated directly into legislation. But "don't criminalize them, just believe they're sinners" is not the finish line. The duty to report clause alone means LGBTQ+ Ghanaians' own families could be legally compelled to turn them in. Ben-Smith's words won't stop that clause from taking effect if Mahama signs. What happens next, whether the president bends to religious pressure or to international backlash, will say a lot more about Ghana's direction than one interview does.
Sources: LGBTQ Nation, PinkNews
Cover photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels
