In the southwestern African nation of Namibia, the “high court in the capital, Windhoek, declared the crimes of ‘sodomy’ and ‘unnatural sexual offences’ as ‘unconstitutional and invalid’ in its ruling on the case brought by a local LGBTQ activist,” reports France 24.
‘We are not persuaded that in a democratic society such as ours… it is reasonably justifiable to make an activity criminal just because a segment, maybe a majority, of the citizenry consider it to be unacceptable,’ the judges wrote. The judgement overturns rarely enforced laws dating back to 1927, which Namibia inherited from the colonial era but maintained after gaining independence from South Africa in 1990.”
Today, Africa nations like Uganda, Nigeria, and Mauritania enforce anti-gay laws, while the European countries that colonized Africa have all legalized gay sex. The death penalty is the legally prescribed punishment for gay sex in Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and in some northern states of Nigeria.
Sudan repealed the death penalty for gay sex in 2020. In 2021, Angola enacted a revised penal code to allow gay sex and ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
In 2020, Gabon repealed a law that made gay sex punishable with six months in prison and a large fine.
In 2019, Botswana’s High Court struk down the criminalization of gay sex. Mozambique and the island nation of the Seychelles off Africa’s coast have also repealed laws against gay sex in recent years.
Thailand recently recognized same-sex marriage.
