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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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I know we try to use LGBT movements as CIA fronts but this doesn't feel like a reaction to that.
The CIA used to finance pro-LGBT groups in Cuba and Venezuela. When Cuba granted LGBTQ+ minorities most of the rights and guarantees they wanted via a democratic referendum, those groups lost all the popularity and funding they had. Nowadays, all these groups complain about is that there is usually a lack of proper medicine to help trans people with their transition, but they don't mention that this is less the government's fault and more the result of the U.S. embargo against Cuba. The Castro family and most of the leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba supported LGBTQ+ rights.
Venezuela is a different case; it is a more socially conservative and religious society than Cuba. While Chávez wasn't homophobic, he basically ignored anything related to LGBTQ+ rights, which led the U.S. to do the same thing they did with Cuba. Maduro seems much more friendly toward LGBTQ+ groups, stating multiple times that he supports and respects them. It seems that Maduro has also cracked down on homophobic speech and views within the PSUV (Venezuela's ruling party) and the government, though the military and police still hold some reactionary views.
Maduro has previously stated that he would approve same-sex marriage. He has reformed laws recently to allow LGBTQ+ people to serve in the army and to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. He wanted the National Assembly to approve a new constitution that would have recognized same-sex marriage and gender identity, but then Juan Guaidó declared himself president and attempted a coup in 2019, and since then, those two reforms have been stuck in limbo.
I just looked into the situation in Nepal and while the communists have moved much more progressive on the issue, pretty much all the LGBTQ organizations on a national level, most of the media and parades were all funded or formed by USAID. We really do just make everything a trojan horse, and we know damn well what we are doing
The rationale I see floating around is that it's an attempt to mitigate recruitment efforts by ISIS separatists. In any case, it changes very little in day-to-day life since Burkina Faso is a homophobic society anyways. Burkina Faso when it was a French neocolony was about as homophobic as it is now.
I'm not even sure if Sankara himself was cool with queer people. People thinking he was are merely projecting what they want him to be or assuming that just because he combated widespread misogyny that he would be cool with queer people somehow. Can someone find a law that Sankara sponsored or even a speech Sankara made where Sankara gave his support to queer Burkinabe?