{"id":3813,"date":"2026-08-03T21:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=3813"},"modified":"2026-08-03T21:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:07:56","slug":"anti-lgbtq-laws-are-on-the-rise-across-west-africa-campaigners-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=3813","title":{"rendered":"Anti-LGBTQ+ laws are on the rise across west Africa, campaigners warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Activists in the region say politicians regard LGBTQ+ people as \u2018the easiest scapegoats to maintain their power\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A growing number of west African countries are implementing or strengthening anti-LGBTQ+ laws, amid local political pressures and a global pushback against LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Senegal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/apr\/07\/senegal-harsh-anti-gay-law-hiv-progress\">doubled the maximum prison sentence<\/a> for gay sex to 10 years and criminalised the \u201cpromotion\u201d of homosexuality. Niger criminalised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jul\/01\/witch-hunt-in-niger-as-military-regime-rounds-up-lgbtq-population\">\u201csexual relations with a person of the same sex\u201d<\/a> in February, the first time same-sex intimacy had been outlawed in the country.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/aug\/02\/anti-lgbtq-laws-are-on-the-rise-across-west-africa-campaigners-warn\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Activists in the region say politicians regard LGBTQ+ people as \u2018the easiest scapegoats to maintain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}