Respect African societies and their values. If you don’t agree, let us just manage our society as we see fit. [Homosexuals] are disgusting. What sort of people are they?
—Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni
They’re poisoning the blood of our country. . . . [Immigrants are] coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.
—U.S. President Donald Trump
Laws affecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in Africa are disparate. Globally, South Africa was the first to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and then in 2006, became the fifth nation to legalize same-sex marriage. In other African nations, homophobic laws vary from one-year imprisonment in Liberia to the death penalty in Mauritania, Somalia, and parts of Nigeria. Anti-LGBTI rhetoric is weaponized by African politicians to legislate hate through the creation and expansion of anti-homosexuality laws. Uganda, which has one of the harshest anti-LGBTI laws, penalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity with life imprisonment and penalizes “aggravated homosexuality” with the death penalty. In Kenya, where consensual same-sex activity is already illegal, the proposed 2023 Family Protection Bill seeks to penalize consensual same-sex sexual activity as well as gay rights activism with a minimum of 10 years in prison and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” Ghana’s parliament approved an anti-LGBTI bill that increased the maximum sentence for being gay and makes gay rights activism and advocacy punishable with up to five years imprisonment. Ghana’s bill has prompted a sharp rise in violence. These laws continue to serve as models for copycat legislation, driving LGBTI Africans to seek protection as refugees and asylum seekers in Western nations.
However, refuge from hate is nearly impossible for Black LGBTI asylum seekers. As African leaders fuel anti-LGBTI sentiment and stiffen anti-homosexuality legislation on the continent, Western politicians are utilizing xenophobic rhetoric and expanding anti-immigrant legislation. In the United States, recent immigration policy proposals include increasing racial profiling so anyone who “looks like an immigrant” can be detained; laws permitting law enforcement to carry out raids at schools, hospitals, and houses of worship; and ending birthright citizenship, deferred action for childhood arrivals, and other pathways to immigration. President Trump began mass deportations when he resumed office in January 2025 and has threatened on multiple occasions to “carry out the largest deportation in American history.” Black migrants will be significantly impacted as he has vowed to prioritize deporting Haitians, stating that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Historically, Black immigrants in the United States have been subjected to dehumanizing stereotypes like false accusations of spreading crime and disease. The combination of expanding anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa and anti-immigrant laws in the United States creates hostile and dangerous conditions for LGBTI Africans.
This article first examines the expansion of anti-homosexuality legislation and counteracting efforts to advance LGBTI rights in Africa. Next, we look at challenges confronting LGBTI migrants during their journeys to seek refuge, including how marginalization and discrimination continue and oftentimes heighten during migration. We also discuss how the existing systems of protection in the United States are inadequate and must be strengthened to meet the unique challenges LGBTI African migrants face. Finally, we conclude by discussing examples of resistance and community power building led by LGBTI African migrants in the United States.
The expansion of homophobic legislation and related violence across Africa has fueled human rights abuses and rhetoric touting homophobia as cultural resistance to neocolonialism. In some countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Uganda, individuals are regularly arrested, charged, and sentenced based on accusations of same-sex conduct and occasionally subjected to invasive anal examinations in an attempt to obtain “evidence.” Those arrested are often detained and extorted to avoid imprisonment. The police use these laws to legitimize torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and violations of due process. These laws lead to the conflation of homosexuality and HIV/AIDS and target organizations providing HIV/AIDS education and care. By threatening minorities and their allies, these laws have pushed Black LGBTI populations further to the margins and often out of their home countries altogether.
In African countries where anti-homosexuality laws are not routinely implemented, the existence of the laws alone provides opportunities for abuse, including blackmail and extortion of those perceived to be homosexuals. Other African nations without anti-LGBTI laws use their decency laws and public morality to blackmail and arbitrarily arrest LGBTI people. In response, African LGBTI advocacy organizations are using the courts to fight back against anti-homosexuality legislation and uphold their rights, including Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Kenya’s National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC), and LGBT+ Rights Ghana.
African migration to the Americas is steadily increasing due to forced migration. Additionally, immigration to Europe has become more difficult to access, particularly with the externalization of immigration policies. Consequently, many Africans are forced to travel longer and through dangerous routes to reach the U.S.-Mexico border as transit to the United States becomes difficult with increasingly restrictive immigration policies. For instance, the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways and the Secure the Border rules apply heightened asylum standards to refugees at the southern border and impose improper penalties on asylum seekers based on their irregular entry into the country of refuge. Once migrants reach the U.S. border, they encounter artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance, like the CBP One application, which exacerbates discrimination at ports of entry, preventing them from seeking immigration relief.
Legal pathways to migration continue to narrow, subjecting LGBTI migrants to grave harm and increased risk of wrongful denials of meritorious asylum claims. They are forced to remain in countries that are fundamentally unsafe and are expected to out themselves to apply for asylum. They then face the same types of harm from which they first fled. Homophobia and transphobia are prevalent across the Americas, including in major urban areas such as Mexico City and Guadalajara. Risks of violence, which include targeted sexual violence, so-called corrective rape, and human trafficking, are disproportionately high on the migration route. They face anti-Black racism, a lack of support networks, and an inability to access critical resources due to language barrier issues. These issues are heightened by different AI-based risk assessment technologies that subject Black migrants to stricter scrutiny by replicating historical biases based on a migrant’s real or perceived ethnicity and predictive models that suggest individuals of certain nationalities possess characteristics that pose a threat to national security.
The number of LGBTI asylees in the United States has increased from a few hundred to several thousand every year. However, many Black LGBTI immigrants do not know about asylum protection until they have lived in the United States for many years, making them ineligible for asylum because they did not meet the one-year filing deadline from their date of entry into the United States or are deemed ineligible for asylum due to various “asylum bans.” Others arrive traumatized and unable to clearly assert asylum claims without legal counsel. Immigrants are not entitled to appointed counsel and are often faced with the overwhelming task of claiming a persecution fear pro se. About 55 percent of individuals in immigration proceedings don’t have legal counsel, and the majority of immigrants are expected to navigate a complex statutory scheme that even attorneys find exceedingly difficult to maneuver. The claims of asylees seeking sexual or gender identity-based asylum are further challenged by varying definitions of persecution, binary constructions of LGBTI identity in U.S. laws, and the reality that many LGBTI applicants are forced to conceal their sexual identities in their countries. Consequently, LGBTI migrants struggle to present the requisite “migration to liberation” narrative that assumes a white, Western homosexual identity and a legible coming out story.
The situation is worse still for LGBTI Black immigrants in the United States as they are not the archetypal white victim, and their suffering is seen as more palatable due to the stereotypes associated with their countries of origin; thus, resulting in low rates of successful asylum screenings and grant rates for individuals from Black-
majority countries. Many find themselves shunned by their families back home as well as by the ethnic immigrant networks they seek out for assistance upon arrival in the United States. They are further vulnerable because language and cultural barriers make it difficult to access service providers or disclose intimate aspects of their identity. Those who are undocumented are at risk of detention and deportation as they encounter the double bind of anti-Black policing and racist immigration policies. Black asylum seekers have higher asylum denial rates and higher rates of arrest, detention, and deportation; face racial profiling in immigration enforcement actions; and have prolonged and arbitrary detention, higher bonds, inadequate access to legal information, legal counsel, and proper interpretation in detention.
While limited, there are creative initiatives that address the unique needs of Black LGBTI asylum seekers in the United States. Below are a few of these critical community resources.
The Queer Black immigrant project (QBip) is a Black radical lawyering initiative that provides legal representation to LGBTQIA+ Black immigrants while creating a safe space for clients to regain control over their voices through oral storytelling that elevates narratives illuminating the global injustice of state-sponsored homophobia and xenophobia.
The Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) is a multi-generational member organization that works toward creating communities across the United States that are home for Black queer and trans migrants. The power of BLMP’s community building is rooted in organizing impacted people who are engaged in advocacy.
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) fights for the rights of Black migrants and African Americans through organizing, legal advocacy, research, policy, and narrative building to improve the conditions of Black communities by advancing racial justice and migrant rights. Most recently, BAJI has been actively supporting the work of LGBTI activists in Ghana to create safety and resistance plans as the country passed its latest anti-homosexuality bill.
Protecting the rights of Black queer and trans migrants is crucial, especially with the rise of authoritarianism, racial and gender hierarchies, criminalization of homosexuality, and increasing nationalism and xenophobia. There is an urgent need for attorneys to understand the plight of Black LGBTI immigrants and to show up in substantive ways that challenge the societal and institutional discrimination that they experience.
