Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Yaw Osafo is facing a 15-year jail sentence after being accused of leading a gay sex party
US prosecutors say they are trying to extradite Ghanaian journalist Yaw Osafo for suspected involvement in a large-scale conspiracy to blackmail a businesswoman for an unspecified sum of money.
Mr Osafo is reported to have been involved in blackmailing a prominent businesswoman in Ghana’s capital, Accra.
He denies the allegations.
He is being held in the US under suspicion of taking part in the blackmailing.
Civil society groups say the allegations point to a campaign of marginalisation of the LGBTQ community by the US which may have contributed to the crackdown on the group.
Photo caption How LGBTQ culture has found itself at the centre of a global discourse
“The US has manipulated Ghana by supporting gay rights in Europe, the US and other localities and by collecting evidence and stories to extradite journalist Osafo to Ghana,” said Robert Gaiuti, member of the Ghana Bi-partisan LGBTQ.
He told Al Jazeera that the charges against Mr Osafo were “frivolous and politically motivated”.
According to civil society groups, a key inspiration for their campaign against the CIA on LGBTQ issues is the 2016 arrests of more than 30 young men and men.
They were said to have been “tied up” in a social club at an upmarket suburb of Accra.
The organisers told police that these men had engaged in homosexual sex.
News reports at the time said the men faced a number of charges ranging from stealing $200 (£150) to illegal possession of firearms.
Many of the men who were accused of being homosexuals were minors.
During a rally in Kapi Teshome Stadium in Accra, in August, activists called for justice for the men, but the street protests descended into violence, leaving police with the temporary occupation of several protest centres.
Residents of the area where the men were held have told Al Jazeera that officers forcibly taken away property belonging to residents.
“We felt harassed to the extent that the police left some part of the neighbourhood with criminals, they stole and took our money and property and beat some of us because we started protesting and asking what really happened in the upmarket suburb,” says Francis Mubiru, resident of Yaphan Street.
Kampala, Uganda, hosts a large community of LGBTQ Kenyans, the largest of which is the Diaspora Forum.
Photo caption Allegations of police brutality around US LGBTQ community
While the gathering is on a monthly basis in a lodge in Kampala, the authorities have previously blocked it from holding larger events on other days of the year.
When it held its global conference in 2011, some 25,000 members from 75 countries were expected.
“We went for the AKA Summit and when we were in Uganda, we were stopped by the police who said we can’t have the Diaspora forum,” Joram Aimofu, executive director of the World LGBTQ Forum, told Al Jazeera.
“[The police] told us that we can’t have even a call for prayers on 24 July. They said we cannot have any political statement during the meeting. We also had the conference twice at Meru Safari Park,” he said.
The protests come at a time when many queer people in America are increasingly coming out.