Senegal doubles penalties for homosexuality amid gay sex panic

Following campaign pledges from both the president and prime minister in Senegal’s latest elections, the country’s Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill doubling penalties in the far West African nation for homosexuality, described in the measure as “acts against nature.”

The revised law is just the latest attack on “degenerate” Western values by government and religious officials.

Same-sex acts in Senegal will now earn 5-10 years in prison. Acts committed with a minor are subject to the maximum penalty, France 24 reports.

“Homosexuals will no longer breathe in this country. Homosexuals will no longer have freedom of expression in this country,” lawmaker Diaraye Ba told colleagues in the National Assembly to applause.

The bill, passed overwhelmingly with three abstentions and no opposing votes, awaits President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s signature.

In addition to doubling prison terms and fines for homosexual acts, the measure includes criminal penalties for those found guilty of promoting or financing same-sex relationships.

Passage of the bill comes amid a veritable gay panic in Senegal, with a wave of arrests and anti-LGBTQ+ protests by religious groups in the Muslim-majority country demanding tougher penalties.

Social media has been flooded with homophobic messages outing gay people, and the media has fixated on the government arrests with headlines like “Big homo clean-up” and “Bisexuals, walking dangers.”

Adding to the hysteria, the gay sweep has been conflated with a child sex ring investigation that detained gang members accused of sexual violence against minors.

The wave of arrests began in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, in February, with the detention of two of Senegal’s highest-profile celebrities, among 12 people rounded up and charged with committing “unnatural” acts and other crimes.

“The majority of Senegalese do not accept homosexuality. Our culture rejects it, and we are firmly opposed to it,” said Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarré, the government’s Minister of Employment.

Over 90% of Senegalese oppose acceptance of gay people, according to Equaldex, the LGBTQ+ collaborative knowledge base. The country ranks 4 out of 100 on the site’s Equality Index. More than half of the 53 countries in Africa impose penalties for homosexuality, from caning and fines to death.

Charles Dotou, head of the Senegal LGBTQ Association, has resigned over the new legislation.

“Most of the same-sex relationships were hidden anyway. There are even people who are married in the society and who are still entertaining a same-sex relationship because of the norm and the cultural norm in that society,” Dotou told the BBC.

“People will be hiding more, it will create more fear, and people will be scared to live normally in that community. So there will be an exodus of people, particularly people who were already exposed, so that that creates a bit of chaos in society,” he added.

March 14, 2026 0

Iowa Gov. touts new law banning local trans rights protections as “the right thing to do”

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Iowa’s Republican Governor just signed a new law banning protections for trans people at the city and county level.

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 579 earlier this week, the Des Moines Register reports. The bill, passed by Iowa’s House of Delegates on March 5 in a party-line vote, prevents local governments throughout the state from adding categories of civil rights violations that are not included in the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

“A city or local government shall not enact any ordinance or other law which is broader or has different categories of unfair or discriminatory practices than those provided,” in the state civil rights code, the bill states.

As the Register notes, the law also bans nearly 20 local governments with existing trans protections in their civil rights laws from enforcing them.

Reynolds told reporters Wednesday that signing the bill “was the right thing to do.”

“We just believe that the locals should follow the state laws, especially when it comes to civil rights, otherwise we have a mismatch of rights out there,” she said, according to the Register.

Last year, Reynolds signed a law repealing civil rights protections for transgender people from the state’s civil rights law, making Iowa the first state in the U.S. to repeal anti-discrimination protections for a previously protected class of people.

State Republican lawmakers made it clear that the point of the 2025 repeal was to ensure that Iowa’s anti-trans bathroom and sports bans and a law banning gender-affirming care for minors could survive potential court challenges, according to the Register.

“It does have an impact on protecting girls’ sports and making sure that we’re protecting girls in safe spaces, in restrooms and in lockers,” Reynolds said Wednesday of Senate File 579. “And so that was at jeopardy if we have a hodgepodge of mixed laws within our state.”

LGBTQ+ rights group One Iowa’s executive director, Max Mowitz, blasted Reynolds’ decision to ban trans protections at the local level, noting that the bill is one of only two pieces of legislation the governor has signed this year.

“Republicans acted as quickly as possible to remove any semblance of rights remaining for transgender Iowans, and took local civil rights commissions down with them,” Mowitz said in a statement, according to the Register.

“With all the issues facing Iowans at this moment, from cancer rates to water quality, Iowa Republicans can’t seem to agree on anything other than taking away civil rights,” he said. “Gov. Kim Reynolds’ legacy will be having removed more civil rights protections from her constituents than any other governor in history.”

March 13, 2026 0

Ken Paxton rolls out “bathroom bill” snitch line allegation ahead of heated Texas US Senate run-off

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The aggrieved mother of a Texas high school student has submitted what’s being described as the first formal complaint lodged over failure to comply with the state’s draconian “bathroom bill” enacted in December, and Senate candidate Ken Paxton is making the most of it.

In a letter to the Office of Texas Attorney General, the woman, whose name was redacted by Texas Values, the right-wing anti trans organization who coached her complaint and published the letter to Paxton, claims that her daughter, a student at Austin High School, informed her that a “biological male” student “has been using the female restrooms and private spaces at Austin High School.”

The woman notified the school on January 10 of the “violation of the recent law passed by the Texas legislature that requires students to use the private facilities based on their biological sex.”

After receiving no response from the school after a second complaint, the woman contacted Texas Values, which provided her with a form letter threatening the school. Administrators ignored that correspondence, as well, the woman claims.

Texas Values describes itself as “the largest statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas.”

A week later, at Texas Values’ urging, the woman wrote her rudimentary complaint with multiple misspellings and sent it to the AG’s office.

“I hope that the parent and her daughter can find some relief and put a stop to this or else the school must face consequences for not following the Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” said Mary Elizabeth Castle, Director of Government Relations for the organization, in a blog post advertising the letter they coached her to write, headlined, “Breaking! Parent Files Formal Complaint Against Austin ISD for Breaking Texas Women’s Privacy Law.”

On Friday, Paxton notified the Austin Independent School District of a citizen complaint via a state tip line alleging the violation of Senate Bill 8, also known as the Women’s Privacy Act. The snitch line was launched shortly after the bill took effect in December “to ensure that state entities are not allowing mentally ill men to invade women’s spaces,” according to the AG’s office.

Paxton’s office did not confirm whether the complaint urged on by Texas Values was the same as that referenced in the AG’s announcement; whether the complaint was verified; or if an official investigation is under way, the Texas Tribune reports.

Paxton’s notification is a statutory prerequisite for filing a lawsuit against Austin ISD. The school district was advised it’s subject to a $5,000 penalty for every day that the violation continues. They have two weeks days to cure the “bathroom bill” breach, the letter warned.

“The law is clear that political subdivisions in Texas must not allow biological men to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms,” Paxton said in the statement. He said his office would explore every legal avenue available.

Paxton, a culture-warring MAGA favorite now in his third term as Texas AG, has overcome multiple scandals and survived an impeachment effort in 2023. Now he’s facing a heated U.S. Senate primary runoff with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, after Paxton’s admission of infidelity last year and an impending divorce.

While in any other scenario he’d already have President Trump’s endorsement, a Paxton win could give Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico an edge in November. So far, Trump has stayed on the sidelines.

Texas Values, despite endorsing the aggrieved high school mom’s bathroom complaint, has yet to endorse either Republican in the Senate race, as well.

“Candidates must be able to demonstrate a firm commitment to protecting religious liberty, marriage and family, and innocent human life,” the group says in their “Faith & Family Voter Guide.”

March 12, 2026 0

Idaho House passes resolution- again- asking SCOTUS to overturn marriage equality

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The Idaho House of Representatives passed a measure this week asking the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the U.S. But the legislation lost three Republican votes compared to a similar measure that passed in the state House last year.

As the Idaho Statesman reports, House Joint Memorial 17 passed in a 44–26 vote Tuesday. The measure, introduced by State Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R), is a formal legislative request for the Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 decision in Overgefell v. Hodges. The measure argues that the decision establishing the constitutional right of same-sex couple to legally marry is “at odds with the Constitution of the United States and the principles upon which the United States is established.” In its Obergefell ruling, the measure argues, the Court applied a definition of liberty that would not have been recognized by the country’s founders. The decision, it says, “relies on the dangerous fiction of treating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as a font of substantive rights” which “strays from the full meaning of the Constitution.”

House Joint Memorial 17 is identical to House Joint Memorial 1, which the Idaho House passed last year.

This time around, however, 17 Republican lawmakers joined House Democrats to vote against the measure, with three more Republican no votes than in 2025.

According to the Statesman, Republican Reps. Dori Healey and Mike Pohanka, who both voted for House Joint Memorial 1 last year, both voted against the 2026 measure. Grayson Stone, who is serving as a long-term substitute for Rep. Don Hall (R) and recently announced that he is running for Hall’s seat, also voted against the measure. Late last year, Hall replaced former Republican Rep. Lance Clow, who voted for House Joint Memorial 1. Hall resigned due to health issues earlier this year.

Stone reportedly acknowledged that his no vote might amount to “political suicide,” but cited the Bible as the reason for his vote.

“This entire argument is rooted in the Bible,” Stone said, according to the Statesman, noting that the Bible includes instructions on how to shave. “I just don’t understand why we have to apply the Bible to specific aspects of our life, but not all of it. So, I will be voting against this bill.”

Pohanka, meanwhile, noted that his own religious beliefs on same-sex marriage have not changed since he voted for the 2025 measure. However, he told the Statesman that he represents all his constituents and wants to get back to actually legislating.

“I thought we advanced [House Joint Memorial 1] last year,” he said. “This year, to me, it’s just going to cause hurt and pain and I don’t want to do that.”

Healey declined to comment on his vote, according to the Statesman.

House Joint Memorial 17 now advances to the Idaho Senate, which declined to vote on the 2025 measure. Even if the state senate approves House Joint Memorial 17, it would not compel the Supreme Court to act.

While conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have repeatedly signaled that they are eager to overturn Obergefell, last November the Court declined to hear a case challenging the decision. Fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett has also said that she thinks the court’s same-sex marriage ruling would remain in place because it affects many other rights, including medical, financial, family, and other social rights.

March 12, 2026 0

Trump admin directs prisons to wean trans inmates off of hormone therapy in defiance of court order

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Recent guidance from the Trump administration requires federal prisons to begin reducing transgender inmates’ hormone therapy treatments.

Medical experts warn that the move will have dangerous medical and psychological consequences for incarcerated trans people, while legal experts say the guidance violates a federal judge’s preliminary injunction in a case challenging the administration’s anti-trans prison policies.

As Advocate reports, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) issued the new guidance in February. It not only bans prisons from providing hormone therapy to inmates who were not receiving it prior to incarceration, but also orders prisons to develop plans for tapering off treatment for those already receiving it.

Dr. Carl Streed, a Boston-based researcher specializing in transgender health, describes the guidance as “alarming.”

“It’s essentially saying that a form of evidence-based care will no longer be provided to people under the purview of the Bureau of Prisons,” Streed told Advocate. “That means the policy runs counter to best practices and arguably probably the law in terms of providing care to inmates because it’s setting up a different standard for them versus the standard out in the community.”

According to Streed, trans inmates receiving hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria will experience a range of adverse health effects stemming from the drop in hormone levels if their treatment is decreased, including changes in cognition and mood, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and metabolic issues. For those who have already undergone surgeries as part of their gender-affirming care, the risks are even more serious.

“They no longer produce adequate endogenous hormones to a level that would be good for their health if we were to take away their exogenous hormones,” Streed said. “Now we’re going to take away hormone therapy for them — they are put at much greater risk than anybody else.”

As Just Detention International communications director Jesse Lerner-Kinglake said in a statement, the new policy will almost certainly exacerbate the already dangerous conditions for trans inmates. Data from the Department of Justice indicates transgender inmates are 10 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than straight prisoners, and multiple court cases have found that housing transgender women in men’s facilities and denying gender-related healthcare are violations of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

But on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping anti-trans executive order, which, among other directives, instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that trans women are housed in men’s detention centers and that “no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Trans inmates, Lerner-Kinglake said, “already had a bullseye on their back — and the federal government knows it. The rates of sexual abuse facing the transgender community were astronomical before these new policies. It’s hard to imagine this already abysmal situation getting worse. And yet it will.”

The administration has already been blocked from implementing its ban on gender-affirming care in prisons. Last year, three transgender people currently incarcerated in federal custody filed a class action suit against the administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons challenging those policies. In June 2025, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction requiring the BOP to continue providing gender-affirming care to trans inmates as the case proceeds.

It’s unclear whether the administration believes that merely weaning trans inmates off hormone therapy represents a legitimate workaround. But Shayna Medley, senior litigation staff attorney at Advocates for Trans Equality, told Advocate that the new BOP guidance violates that injunction.

“The February 19 guidance from the Bureau of Prisons directing tapering of hormone therapy for transgender people in custody is a direct violation of the injunction in Kingdom v. Trump, which requires the BOP to continue providing hormones to people in custody with a gender dysphoria diagnosis,” Medley said. Advocates for Trans Equality’s position, she said, is that the guidance “is currently enjoined by the existing injunction in the Kingdom v. Trump litigation.”

“Implementation would be in direct violation of the federal court’s order to continue providing hormone therapy to transgender people in BOP custody with a gender dysphoria diagnosis.”