Lawmakers in Senegal have rejected a proposed bill that would have doubled down on the criminalization of LGBTQI+ folks in the country by increasing prison sentences to 10 years.

Sex for LGBTQI+ folks in Senegal is criminalized with a punishment of five years in prison, and arrests have been increasing sharply according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

Last May, hundreds protested to double down on the criminalization of LGBTQ+ folks in Senegal, Dakar – previously considered the gay capital of West Africa.

At least 150 people ‘presumed’ to be gay have been assaulted or threatened by the public – with the police siding with the attackers – in the span of three weeks between May to June 2021, France24 found.

Senegal has rejected recommendations to decriminalize sex based on gender and to end detention of LGBTQI+ folks by the United States, Canada and the United Nations.

“Despite this international pressure, the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex sexual activity in Senegal remains a fraught social topic, with ILGA World noting several cases of homophobic mob violence in the country. As a result, it is also a politically charged issue, often used by politicians to gain popularity or undermine the reputations of their opponents,” ILGA reports.

Senegal became independent in 1960, after centuries of French colonial rule ‘wounding’ masculinity in the country: “During colonial times, popular European representations of African men were feminized and infantilized,” according to the Cry Like A Boy podcast.

Decades ago, gender nonconforming folks in Senegal played influential roles in ceremonies like weddings and political positions, and were able to move around ‘freely.’

But as toxic ideals of the gender binary came into formation, gender nonconformity came to be prosecuted.

“In the colonial laws, you have all these homophobic dispositions. The laws that you find in the texts and in Africa were not invented by Africans... We extended laws that existed during colonisation,” Senegalese Professor of medical and social anthropology Cheikh Niang told the podcast.