Clara Watt
Lives and works in France
www
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values
« Growing up, I used to be proud of my country, of being Ghanaian. This changed as I grew into who I was – you can’t be Queer in Ghana without watching over your shoulder every day. ” – a queer Ghanaian, interviewed in April 2022.
This project documents the passing of an anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Ghana using portraits and collage to show the
contrast between expression and repression. It aims to bring global attention to these human rights violations, advocating for social change and protections for the LGBTQ+ communities in Ghana, on the African continent and beyond. With the support of the Prix Virginia, I hope to amplify these silenced voices and experiences, and to foster a global understanding and support for LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana at this incredibly pressing time.
February 2021: Accra’s first LGBTQ+ community space opens. Two weeks later, it is raided and forcibly closed down by local law enforcement. These events represent years of institutionalised homophobia and
anti-LGBTQ+ and religion-based rhetoric. Culminating in ‘The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values’, a private members bill that aims to establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ persons and their allies. In 2024, Ghana voted in favor of the bill. Once passed, LGBTQ+ activities and allyship will become a criminal offense, punishable by prison terms of 3-5 years. Simply identifying as LGBTQ+ will become a crime. Since the bill’s first introduction to Parliament in August 2021, LGBTQ+ communities have already suffered an increase in violent attacks, blackmail, and kidnappings.
My initial project, started in 2022, aimed to show proud portraits of Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community. Despite
facing a bill that denied their human rights, all my subjects bravely chose to show their faces and share their
names (the original photo titles). This first chapter was exhibited in Germany, Paris, and across the
Netherlands. Once the bill passed earlier this year, I realized this exposure was dangerous. All my subjects
asked that their photos be taken down in fear of persecution and prosecution.
While the underlying themes remain unchanged, an exploration of identity, survival and love, this project has now taken on a new form. A second chapter in this evolving story. From portraits that originally aimed to give visibility to the courage and strength of the community, these faces and the people behind them have now become ghost-like figures, hidden behind a bill that denies and criminalizes their existence as Ghanaians, Africans, and human beings (the photo titles have also changed from the subject’s name to a “provision number” within the proposed bill to hide their identity). It is my responsibility to respect their wishes for anonymity while at the same time keeping their presence and impact very much alive. The development of this series over time shows the lived reality for Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community; the repression of their dreams, desires, and futures.
They may be in hiding, for now. But the LGBTQ+ community in Ghana and beyond remains powerful, united, creative, and hopeful for a future where they can live a life without fear, and one day reemerge from the shadows imposed on them by this discriminatory and draconian bill.
