Hundreds protest against LGBTQ rights in Senegal

Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Dakar on Sunday to demand that homosexuality be made a crime in Senegal, according to local media.

In the profoundly conservative Muslim nation, it is not illegal to identify as gay, but same-sex conduct is still punishable by up to five years in jail.

Religious leaders and civil society figures addressed hundreds of jubilant protesters, who had gathered in a central square for the rally organized by And Samm Jikko Yi, a civil society collective that promotes “correct values”.

Senegal, according to Ousmane Kouta, a leader of a student religious community, is a country of faith and values.

“It is homophobic and will remain so forever,” he said.

“We will kill them, or we will burn them alive. We’ll never accept homosexuality,” a 56-year-old municipal official added.

Senegal’s government has repeatedly ruled out legalizing homosexuality.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall had previously stressed that gay people are not ostracised in the nation of 16 million however and that the same-sex activity ban reflects cultural norms.

Consensual same-sex relations are legal in 21 of 54 African countries, according to a 2019 report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association.