Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Others Sign Supportive Letter after LGBTQ Center Closes in Ghana

Many celebrities – 67 in all – have put their names to a letter expressing concern and support following the closure of an LGBTQ community center in Ghana last week, UK newspaper The Guardian reports.

The signatories were "politicians and other influential people largely of Ghanian heritage" and included "Idris Elba, Naomi Campbell and the [British] Vogue editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful," the article said.

Both Elba and Campbell took to Instagram to comment.

"Our LGBTQIA+ community in Ghana. We see you, we hear you, we support you" Elba wrote.

Campbell wrote: "I stand with my brothers and sisters , 66 signees , Ghanaians and non Ghanaians in supporting #LGBTQIA and all Human rights for safety ,fairness and EQUALITY FOR ALL #ghanasupportsequality #NAOMIAFRICA."

The LGBT+ Rights Ghana Centre was located in the city of Accra and had only opened this past January. The Guardian said that the center closed down last week "following mounting pressure by religious groups and anti-gay organizations against sexual minorities," as well as online harassment and death threats that sent the center's staff "into hiding."

Even after the center closed, the harassment did not end, with police staging a raid on the building.

The open letter was addressed to the center's staff, telling them, "In recent weeks we have watched with profound concern as you have had to question the safety of your vital work at the LGBT+ Rights Ghana Centre in Accra, and feared for your personal wellbeing and security. It is unacceptable to us that you feel unsafe."

The signatories then directed their comments to Ghana's power brokers and influencers, "beseeching His Excellency, The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and political/cultural leaders to create a pathway for allyship, protection and support. We petition for inclusivity which will make the nation even greater and even stronger."

The article noted that anti-LGBTQ sentiment in Ghana has been growing in recent years thanks to "influential anti-gay campaigners" and said that the Catholic Church had played a significant role in the community center's closure. The country's "Catholic church bishops' conference" had put out "a statement demanding the center be shut down," the Guardian reported.

The bishops' conference also "condemned 'all those who support the practice of homosexuality in Ghana,' " and "urged the government 'never to be cowed down or to succumb to the pressure to legalize the rights of LGBTQIs in Ghana,' " the Guardian recalled.