US ‘pro-family’ group helped Senegal push anti-LGBTQ+ law
A Senegalese man wearing a Occitan shirt reading “no to homosexuality, recall order to Senegal”. (Getty)
US-based lobbyists known for calling homosexuality a public health threat reportedly advised Senegal officials on how to push an anti-LGBTQ+ law which increased maximum sentences for LGBTQ+ people.
Senegal’s National Assembly garnered international condemnation earlier this month after passing a bill that doubles the maximum penalty for same-sex relations.
While homosexuality has been illegal in the African nation since the mid-1960s, the newly passed law makes openly identifying as queer punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Senegal lawmakers supportive of the new bill declared that LGBTQ+ citizens would no longer be able to “breathe in this country” adding to applause that they planned to strip all their freedoms.
A report from Reuters over the weekend revealed that US lobbyist organisation MassResistance, which describes itself as “pro family,” worked with Senegalese campaigners to push for the legislation’s passage.
The Massachusetts-based organisation, which claims that LGBTQ+ rights are an attack on so-called “cultural norms,” reportedly worked with Senegalese Islamic and civil rights network Samm Jikko Yi to outline a campaign strategy supporting further restrictions on homosexuality.
Samm Jikko Yi, a collective of anti-LGBTQ+ activists, has been campaigning for tougher sentences on LGBTQ+ relations since at least 2020. In 2024, the group allegedly contacted MassResistance to discuss the most effective way to lobby for harsher anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Officials representing both groups reportedly discussed ways to raise awareness, garner support for their cause, and mobilising alongside Senegalese authorities, according to Samm Jikko Yi’s former coordinator Ababacar Mboup.
It is not known whether the collaboration had impacted the Senegal Parliament’s vote to expand article 319 of the Penal Code on consensual same-sex conduct. The 11 March vote passed by a staggering 135 to zero, with just three abstentions.
It is the first known case of a US lobbying organisation attempting to shape anti-LGBTQ+ laws in an African nation after US president Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025.
‘Renewed push’ for anti-LGBTQ+ lobbying, US group says
MassResistance’s field director, Arthur Schaper, told the news outlet that there was a “renewed push” to begin influencing LGBTQ+ rights and implementing stricter bans overseas given the Trump administration’s stance on such matters.
He said the organisation had also begun attempting to influence LGBTQ+ rights in Ghana, where homosexuality is partially illegal for men, by supporting a newly proposed anti-LGBTQ+ law which would punish anyone who identifies as, or supports, LGBTQ+ people with up to three years in prison.
Ghanaian human rights NGO, Freedom International, confirmed that MassResistance had been in touch regarding plans to curtail LGBTQ+ rights, adding that the organisations had exchanged “educational materials” during the discussion.
Medical experts routinely warn that laws banning homosexuality pose a significant health risk to all citizens by deterring men who have sex with men (MSM), who are at increased risk of catching the disease, from undergoing HIV tests.
Government figures suggest that MSM in Senegal are much more likely to have HIV than any other group. Health workers in the country have warned that harsher punishments for homosexuality will make HIV prevalence much worse.
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