The Oxford Handbook of Media and Social Justice Srividya Ramasubramanian (ed.), Omotayo O. Banjo (ed.) https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197744345.001.0001 Published: 2024 Online ISBN: 9780197744376 Print ISBN: 9780197744345 Search in this book CHAPTER https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197744345.013.29 Pages 268–277 Published: 19 September 2024 Abstract Keywords: activism, Ghana, LGBT, queer visibility, social media Subject: Social Psychology, Psychology Series: Oxford Library of Psychology Collection: Oxford Handbooks Online 29 LGBT Activism, Social Media, and the Politics of Queer Visibility in Ghana  Godfried A. Asante, Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Ama Boatemaa Appiah-Kubi This chapter explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and sassoi (LGBTS) Ghanaian activists use social media to mitigate the tensions around their desire for political visibility and need for personal safety. Same-sex sexual relations continue to be a criminal oense in Ghana under the carnal knowledge clause instituted by the British during colonization. Although the law does not specically mention same-sex sexual relations, the carnal knowledge clause criminalizes all forms of nonheterosexual sexual activities, creating room for the legitimation of vigilante and state violence against LGBT persons. The criminalization of same-sex sexual relations has sparked intense debates about African subjectivity. In Ghana, such debates are largely shaped by anti-LGBT media organizations that have partnered with anti-LGBT politicians and religious fundamentalists both in Ghana and in the United States to discursively frame LGBT rights as part of Western colonial eorts. In Ghana, it is argued that LGBT rights and gay marriage will morally bankrupt the nation and further entrench Western imperialist control of Ghana’s culture and resources. False arguments such as this have created a rationalization for homophobic violence and discrimination against LGBT Ghanaians. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram allow for such complex maneuvering to occur by creating room for anonymity and privacy. Nonetheless, such sites are not outside the connes of social hierarchy in face-to-face interaction. As such, these sites should be approached as spaces where desires for social justice intersect with corporate capitalist extractivist tactics and in turn complicate the ecacy of social justice eorts. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/58202/chapter/482140134 by OUP-Reference Gratis Access user on 25 September 2024