24 year old gay man Emmanuel isolated himself as a young man fearing the homophobic abuse and violence: “I felt like an alien. I felt like I didn't need to go out because people weren't comfortable with seeing me, so I was indoors, and I would say it was traumatizing because things that I need to go out and do, I cannot go out and do it because of how people will look at me. So, that in term kept me in the room most of times.” He remembers being attacked when he was a teenager by four men after he left a neighborhood pub. He says he was targeted because of his “effeminate” gestures: “The one in front of me punched my stomach, and before I bent down to endure the pain, the rest of the three came along with the one, making the four, surrounded me, and starting attacking me physically. I don't know, I didn't know how it worked, but I got to escape. I think I wasn't hurt but bruised. So, I'm very fortunate. That's my first incident.” Ghana, Accra. 06 March, 2018. Photo Robin Hammond/Witness Change

Emmanuel /

“I’m Emmanuel Alan. I born gay, proud, and adventurous. I have been attacked, ridiculed, and discriminated against. I knew I was gay from when I started experiencing adolescence. I love men, and I won’t change that for anything in the world. Besides, love is love. In this part of the world where love is not legalized, this shouldn’t be just a dream but a reality, a place where I belong, my world, my love, where love is legalized.”

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