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Burkina Faso bans homosexuality as a crime punishable with prison, fines
(www.aljazeera.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Who are they trying to please with this ? What's the lawmaking process? I was under the impression the government currently mostly does whatever it wants so I'm trying to understand what actual purpose this even has. Are there groups they need to court the opinion of internally? Are they doing this because they're aiming to appeal to groups externally elsewhere in Africa as part of expanding AES?
I'd just like some insight into what forces or pressures brought this about at a time when surely their biggest priority should be territorial control of their whole borders which are being fought over with the extreme islamic groups. Maybe that's it? Maybe it cuts into one of the motivations those people have for fighting for them? I don't know, speculating.
I have very limited knowledge but the explanation I got was the military is not secular enough and the average soldier is influenced by either old Catholic homophobia or newer Salafist homophobia, and the latter is used as a recruitment technique to pull soldiers to the Salafist militias who are the biggest threat to the current governments. The theory apparently is that making 'deviant' sexual behaviour illegal on paper means the propaganda cudgel is taken away from the militias but thje government never has to enforce it meaningfully when they decide to be allies- that last part seemed like cope on the person I was talking to's part
Probably just trying to win over the conservative catholic and sunni groups
The Justice Minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, defended the law as a measure to protect “cultural values,” warning that those who engage in what he described as “bizarre behaviour” would face legal consequences. To him, the law is less about criminal justice and more about safeguarding what he calls the moral fabric of society. For many within the ruling establishment, this step is about planting their flag firmly in the ground. An assertion of sovereignty in a global climate where local values and international rights discourse often collide.. The purpose is to crack down on unnatural behaviour that is incompatible with traditional society. There's also the sovereignity angle of resisting un-African liberal ideas.
Parliament has passed it, now it needs the leader's signature: https://ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/africa/Burkina-Faso-s-parliament-votes-to-outlaw-homosexual-acts-1998964
I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure that someone should tell Mr. Bayala that islamic/christcuckian style homophobia are technically "un-African ideas".
lol
Its crazy that foreign countries' pr teams spend any energy on this site, but not surprising that they dont spend enough time here to be able to read the room.
is it Awoo or Vampire that you're stating represent a foreign country's PR team? I don't see any mention of hexbear in any of Vampire's links.
what are you on about?
for starters, which countries are "foreign"?
obviously 99% of web users are going to be from a different country to you, and therefore not share your country's political norms
secondly, wut?
Most of them!
Yeah but hexbear is like 90% queer and calling homophobia an assertion of sovereignty isnt in contrast with my country's political norms (homophobia is very common here!) But it is in contrast with this website's
Awoo's question is based on this line of thinking:
Assume the Ouagadougou government isn't homophobic
Then they pass a homophobic law
Therefore they must be passing the law to play 3D chess
They passed an anti-gay law coz they're anti-gay. Let's not overthink this.
It's not 3D chess to consider whether there's political reasons rather than cultural ones.
I think it's safe to say whatever reasons may exist, they aren't valid ones. I'm highly skeptical the "play" of throwing a bunch of your comrades under the bus like that is ever effective even in the most clinical analysis.
It's always better to understand why these things happen than to dismiss them as 'just homophobia' in a knee jerk reaction. Yes, of course it's homophobia at its core, but as a queer person who has the privilege of watching this as an onlooker rather than living through it in Burkina Faso (and my heart goes out to the people living through it), I would like to understand what conditions surround the implementation of evil laws like this. Exploring that is not legitimising the homophobia.
And frankly accusing Awoo of trying to do that is just taking what she's saying in bad faith.
I think you replied to the wrong comment
No? That comment was for you
huh?
The web is full of foreigners who don't think like you.
yes i understand that part but the 99% doesn't make sense with how web traffic is siloed by language and whatnot.
gonna go ahead and assume it's because they're homophobic and they like homophobic policy.
The groups being recruited by ISIS/AQ.