US “Pro-Family” Hate Group MassResistance Is Helping Push Anti-LGBT Laws In Africa
Anti-LGBTQ+ activists in the African nations of Senegal and Ghana have gone on record to Reuters, saying US hate group MassResistance provided advice and counsel, as well as trying to organise funding, while they campaigned for harsh laws against gay people in their countries.
MassResistance is a US based anti-LGBTQ hate group that promotes discriminatory and harmful rhetoric against the LGBTQ community, and denouncing “the transgender war on cultural norms”, including the claim that that LGBTQ people are “dangerous to kids”, linking homosexuality to pedophilia and sex with animals, and grossly exaggerating and misrepresenting the health risks associated with being LGBTQ. They have campaigned in the US since 1995.
On its website, the group claims to have worked with activists from at least 24 countries and territories, including Australia, where they were involved with the anti marriage-equality campaign. This is the first reported case of a US group helping campaign for anti-LGBT legislation in Africa.
And Samm Jikko Yi, a Senegalese network of Islamic and civil society organisations, reportedly contacted MassResistance in 2024 to discuss an attempt to change the law, as well as the possible creation of a MassResistance chapter in Senegal. They discussed tactics for awareness-raising, mobilisation and advocacy with Senegalese authorities.
MassResistance says it is focused on pushing “pro-family laws and policies” that ensure LGBT rights are not celebrated or normalised.
“The high rates of disease, dysfunction, and death associated with these sexual paraphilias are too great to ignore,” said MassResistance field director, Arthur Schaper.
Harsh new laws
Senegalese lawmakers approved a new law in March which doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalises “promotion of homosexuality”. MassResistance has also been in touch with activists in Ghana, where lawmakers are considering harsher anti-LGBT laws as well.
Like in Senegal, same-sex sexual acts are already criminalised in Ghana, but the proposed legislation would increase the maximum penalty from three to five years and impose jail time for the “wilful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.
Ababacar Mboup, the former coordinator and honorary president of And Samm Jikko Yi, said he and Schaper from MassResistance discussed tactics for awareness-raising, mobilisation, and advocacy with Senegalese government officials, in line with the group’s expertise attacking LGBTQ+ rights and pushing “pro-family laws and policies.”
Frank Mackay Anim-Appiah, executive director of the Ghanaian human rights NGO Freedom International, said he and Schaper had exchanged “educational materials” and broadly discussed the need to curtail LGBT rights, and said Schaper had tried to secure financing for him from “funders” he declined to name.
Coordinated Attacks On LGBTQIA+ Rights
According to the Equality Australia report, Defending Equality, the recent rise in anti-LGBTIQ+ sentiment around the world is not accidental, and is being driven by a well-resourced, coordinated international network often called the ‘anti-rights’ or ‘anti-gender’ movement, of which MassResistance is only one known to us.
The report goes on to show that this anti-gender movement is well resourced, with evidence indicating links to funding from the Russian state and Russian-aligned actors, The US Christian right, especially wealthy individuals using private foundations, and private wealth including Catholic and aristocratic foundations in Europe.”
“The anti-gender movement is already highly influential. Generally, local groups and individuals are the public face, while international actors work in the background,” says the report, stating that it includes both international anti-rights organisations and local groups, whose level of collaboration varies between countries and over time.
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