On September 2, 2025, Burkina Faso’s transitional parliament passed a sweeping reform to its Persons and Family Code, criminalizing homosexuality for the first time in the country’s history. Under the new law, acts deemed to “promote homosexual practices” carry sentences of two to five years in prison, steep fines, and even deportation for foreign nationals. The justice minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, described same-sex relations as “bizarre behavior” and framed the legislation as a defense of cultural values and traditional marriage. The law was adopted unanimously by an unelected 71-member legislative body under the military junta of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, and it took effect immediately.
For LGBTQ people in Uganda, this news is painfully familiar. Uganda’s own Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 imposed some of the harshest penalties in the world, including the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relations. As Ugandans living under the constant threat of surveillance, police raids, and societal rejection, seeing Burkina Faso follow this path feels like déjà vu. It shows that the culture of repression is spreading and being repackaged as the protection of “tradition.” Yet history tells us that queerness is not foreign to Africa. Across centuries, diverse gender identities and same-sex relationships have existed in many African cultures, only to be erased and criminalized through colonial legacies.
The move by Burkina Faso also highlights a troubling regional trend. In December 2024, Mali expanded its “public indecency” laws to criminalize homosexuality, further shrinking the space for queer existence. Today, over 30 African countries—from Uganda and Ghana to Mali and now Burkina Faso—have laws that punish LGBTQ people with imprisonment, fines, or worse. These legislative measures often emerge in authoritarian contexts where leaders seek to consolidate power, appealing to conservative values and using vulnerable minorities as scapegoats.
For Ugandan LGBTQ communities, Burkina Faso’s law is not just another news headline—it is a warning and a call for action. It reminds us of the urgency of building solidarity across borders, so that queer Africans do not suffer in silence, isolated within their national struggles. Solidarity can take many forms: creating networks of legal and humanitarian support, amplifying queer voices through storytelling and art, and demanding accountability from international allies who claim to support human rights. It also means finding ways to protect those most at risk, offering safe havens and channels for escape when survival is no longer possible at home.
Burkina Faso’s criminalization of LGBTQ lives echoes the brutality many of us have already endured in Uganda. But it also calls us to resist, to push back against narratives that deny our existence, and to remind the world that queer Africans are not going anywhere. Despite the fear and danger, our identities are valid, our love is real, and our lives are worth protecting. In standing with Burkina Faso’s LGBTQ community today, we strengthen our own fight here in Uganda. Together, across borders and despite repression, we will continue to live, to resist, and to claim our right to exist with dignity.
