HRF condemns Senegalese authorities’ escalating crackdown against homosexuality, marked by harsher criminalization of same-sex relations, police arrests, criminal prosecutions, and hysteria linking HIV to homosexuality.
On August 7, nearly 100 men detained since February appeared before a judge of the Pikine-Guédiawaye high court in Dakar, Senegal’s capital. The men, including media and entertainment personalities, have been held on accusations ranging from “unnatural acts” to “willful transmission of HIV.” The judge referred 71 of the men for trial on the first charge (unnatural acts) and dismissed the others for lack of evidence; 28 others received an acquittal, but the public prosecutor immediately filed an appeal.
If the defendants are convicted, they face penalties that have been stiffened by a recent bill that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed into law on March 30. The law fulfills demands from Serigne Kosso Mbacké, a cleric from the country’s highest and most politically influential religious authority, to make penalties for homosexuality more severe, while extending criminal liability to the promotion, public representation, and financing of same-sex relations. In June, Senegal amended its constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
The Senegalese police’s arrests of suspected homosexuals increased in 2025 and have accelerated in recent months amid homophobic political populism, hysteria about gay men and HIV, and denunciations based on circumstantial evidence. In late July, eight women were arrested on accusations of lesbianism, marking the first time women have been targeted. They face a slew of charges and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
