“YOU CANNOT COME OUT AS GAY. EVERYBODY WILL STOP TALKING TO YOU; FAMILY WILL DISOWN YOU. YOU HAVE TO BE HIDDEN”
It
was late one evening in September when my phone rang, and I saw my friend John’s name flash up on screen. I expected to hear his bright, upbeat voice on the line. Instead, he was erratic and upset, struggling to catch his breath between words. His friend Kwesi had returned to the UK from Ghana after a group of men had burst into his hotel room and severely beat him up. He had been set up by a man he had arranged to meet. The police were called, and Kwesi, 48, was taken to the police station, where they tried to make him confess to being gay so that he could be arrested.