Rooted in colonialism, legislation backed by governments eager for popularity is obstructing real progress for queer minorities  Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Morgan Ofori Morgan Ofori Wed 8 Apr 2026 12.38 BST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. It’s Morgan here, covering for Nesrine this week. There has been a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation across a number of African countries that already have strict sexuality laws. I spoke with LGBTQ+ people and activists fighting against the narrative that their identities are an imported “western” creation to better understand the impact of these new laws, why they are happening, and how foreign lobbying groups are pushing for more draconian laws.Last month, the president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, signed a new law that doubled the maximum prison sentence for sexual acts by same-sex couples to 10 years. The act also banned financial support for or “promotion” of homosexuality. This came after more than a dozen men, including a popular musician and a journalist, were arrested and charged with “acts against nature” in February. Last September, Burkina Faso’s interim president, Ibrahim Traoré, signed into law a provision that criminalised “homosexual acts”, which would be punished with prison sentences of two to five years and fines of up to 10m CFA francs (£13,300). The Human Dignity Trust labelled it a “deplorable development”. Meanwhile, in 2023, the Ugandan head of state, Yoweri Museveni, ratified perhaps the most globally infamous anti-LGBT legislation, which included the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. The law built on the “Kill the Gays” bill, which came into force in 2014 but carried no risk of execution. More recently, and perhaps as troubling, plans are in motion for Ghana to resume the legislative process, which began in 2021, for its controversial Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which is rooted in colonial-era criminalisation of sexuality. Ghana’s parliament first passed a version of the bill in 2024, but it expired without then-President Nana Akufo-Addo’s assent. A new version, received by parliament in February places a legal duty on professionals – such as teachers, journalists, parents and religious leaders – to “protect family values”, creating a mandatory obligation on the part of citizens to enact it.Ghana’s current president, John Mahama, speaking last month, said the reintroduction of the bill had sparked a “complex and sensitive” national conversation, but that his government would be guided by the country’s 1992 constitution, human rights and dignity, as well as preserving social cohesion. “I explained during my recent engagement with the World Affairs Council [of Philadelphia] that it is not the most important issue we face as a nation,” he said. “We are still grappling with the provisions of basic needs of education, healthcare, jobs, food, clothing and shelter.”For many Ghanaians, those basic needs remain out of reach, especially for queer people. For awo dufie fofie, an intersex trans woman living in Ghana, that insecurity is compounded by the threat her identity poses to her safety and survival. An archivist documenting queerness, awo was doxed in 2023, and has faced discrimination after people learned of her identity. “The next apartment I lived in, I lived in for one month, and the owner of the apartment asked me to leave.” Three subsequent landlords would, in quick succession, evict her. A low point, she tells me, was being attacked by a mob in a car outside her Airbnb accommodation in Accra. “It came with a lot of consequences: psychological, financial … One of the reasons I could not make it to school [university] was because the attack meant I missed my interview for my application to do a PhD.” Through her work with civil organisations such as Rightify, which documents abuses and violence, awo has seen examples of repression beyond Ghanaian borders and on the continent. “Conversion therapy camps exist. I have been threatened with them twice by my biological family. Frequently, we have gay men being set up on social media apps and getting brutally, brutally beaten.” Amanda Odoi, a researcher and activist who brought a case against the speaker of parliament and the attorney general, challenging the bill, criticises its outsized impact on allies and their networks. “There are threats to life, threats to careers, threats to security. Sometimes politicians don’t understand how the messages they send create these kinds of challenges for people caught up in these issues.” Odoi adds that the political rhetoric will hurt individuals who are non-conforming in general and lead to material attacks on not just sexual rights but reproductive ones, too.