Flag of Niger – Illustration: Kreativorks via iStockphoto
Niger’s military junta has enacted a new penal code criminalizing homosexuality.
The West African nation is the latest African country to criminalize homosexuality, just months after Senegal doubled the penalty for consensual same-sex relations.
The new penal code, which took effect on June 11, punishes anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts” with five to 10 years in prison and a fine. How authorities would determine what constitutes an “asexual act” remains unclear.
The same penalties also apply to people who officiate, witness, or help organize same-sex marriages, as well as those who rent or provide space for such ceremonies.
Although homosexuality was not previously illegal in Niger, it remained heavily stigmatized in the predominantly Muslim nation.
Currently, 66 countries — including 33 in Africa — criminalize homosexuality or transgender identity. In Somalia, Uganda, and Mauritania, people can face the death penalty for same-sex conduct.
In December 2024, the neighboring country of Mali criminalized homosexuality following a military coup. Last September, lawmakers in nearby Burkina Faso passed a law criminalizing homosexuality, despite not inheriting a colonial-era penal code from European colonizers that makes “sodomy” illegal, following its own military coup.
Last month, lawmakers in Ghana passed a bill expanding existing prohibitions on homosexuality by criminalizing the promotion of “LGBTQ activities” and advocacy for LGBTQ rights, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison.
LGBTQ New York Police Department officers affiliated with the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) will boycott Manhattan's Pride March on Sunday, June 28, after organizers declined to exempt them from a policy barring marchers from carrying weapons, including police service firearms. GOAL argues that officers' firearms are an integral part of their uniform.
The boycott marks the fifth consecutive year that GOAL has clashed with Heritage of Pride, the organization behind the march, over the participation of uniformed police officers.
Colorado has approved a bill allowing survivors of conversion therapy to sue licensed providers regardless of when the therapy occurred.
The measure, sponsored by State Reps. Alex Valdez (D-Denver), an out gay man, and Karen McCormick (D-Hygiene), along with Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Littleton) and Kyle Mullica (D-Northglenn), allows people subjected to sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts to sue licensed mental health professionals for damages. Entities that hired or supervised providers engaging in conversion therapy could also be sued.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke, of the U.S. District Court of Oregon, issued a preliminary injunction on April 29 blocking the placement of transgender women in men's prisons and ordering the Oregon Department of Corrections to conduct individualized safety assessments for transgender inmates -- directly conflicting with President Donald Trump's executive order requiring inmates to be housed according to their assigned sex at birth.
The case stems from a class-action lawsuit brought by two prisoners on behalf of current and future transgender inmates, accusing the state of failing to protect transgender women from sexual and physical violence by housing them in men's prisons.
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