West African States Tighten Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws, With Senegal Raising Gay-Sex Term to 10 Years
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 2
West African States Tighten Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws, With Senegal Raising Gay-Sex Term to 10 Years
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 2
Summary
Senegal, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana have recently enacted or advanced harsher anti-LGBTQ+ measures, with Senegal in March doubling the maximum prison term for gay sex to 10 years and banning the “promotion” of homosexuality.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso criminalised same-sex relations for the first time in the past two years, while Ghana in June passed a bill targeting LGBTQ+ “activities” that still awaits presidential assent.
Activists and researchers say the push is driven by political opportunism, military-led sovereignty rhetoric and strong backing from religious and “family values” campaigns, including conservative Western Christian groups.
Burkina Faso and Ghana have become hubs for that cross-border influence: a parliamentary “family values” conference met in Ghana in June, and next year’s gatherings are set for Burkina Faso and Eswatini.
The crackdown is already hitting LGBTQ+ communities through arrests, alleged beatings, online entrapment, disrupted HIV services and displacement, with about 100 Senegalese fleeing to Gambia this year.