Civil Society and Sexual Struggles in Africa

Abstract

Questions of sexuality often remain peripheral to both the agendas of African civil society organizations (CSOs) and those who study civil society operations in different African nations. However, in the last two decades, political and religious leaders in a number of African nations have attacked sexual diversity. In response to the threats of state repression against gender and sexual minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Africans have formed activist organizations to support LGBT constituents and to promote gender and sexual minority rights as human rights. This chapter explores the form and content of contemporary African “sexual diversity struggles,” a term that refers to efforts to defend gender and sexual dissidence and to promote laws and policies that affirm gender and sexual diversity. This chapter contextualizes the rise of sexual diversity struggles throughout Africa and profiles the involvement of different civil society actors such as LGBT movement organizations, HIV/AIDS nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women’s rights NGOs, and faith-based NGOs, in these struggles. Different CSOs lobby lawmakers to decriminalize same-sex sexualities, shelter gender and sexual minorities from hostile opponents, and develop local and transnational networks of sympathetic bystanders, lawmakers, foreign donors, and diplomats. This chapter pays particular attention to the transnational dimensions of African sexual diversity struggles and how local CSOs navigate the tensions and rewards that accompany transnational advocacy around LGBT rights.