When Being LGBTQI+ is Illegal - The Worst Wardships Came from Police and Self-Styled Vigilante Gangs
In 2017, while studying gender and poverty in an urban setting in Africa, ethnologist Laura Stark stumbled upon news of persons with non-conforming genders and sexualities (NCGS). Interview participants made many mentions of this minority group. “To some of my questions, interview participants talked about ‘geis’, which refers to transwomen and ‘in-between’ genders” - Stark observes.
When Stark talked to geis, she heard dramatic stories of them being chased by vigilantes on the streets, jailed by police, and threatened by local security guards. Her curiosity was aroused. Why was this happening? A quick survey of the evidence showed a gap in studying of NCGS persons in Sub-Saharan Africa:
From the evidence, national laws did not tell us what is happening ‘on the ground’. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa still draw on colonial-era law to declare that ‘unnatural offences’ and ‘gross indecency’ are punishable by various terms of imprisonment from three to 30 years. In practice, long prison terms rarely happen. What does happen to ‘geis’ is mostly unknown.
Over the next couple of years (2020-2022), Stark interviewed over 100 male-born NCGSs to understand their lived experiences better. “They told me their worst hardships came not from the implementation of national law but from unpredictable security actors: police, security guards, and self-styled vigilante gangs. Surprisingly, little was known about how NCGSs interact with these informal and formal actors at the street level”.
This initial curiosity and preliminary inquiry laid the groundwork for a more extensive study - the ACACIA Project. "We conduct the study in three African countries where we ask how NCGSs interact at the everyday street level with local authorities and security actors. The project focuses on urban neighbourhoods because many NCGS persons migrate to cities after rejection by families" - explains Stark.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a region that has intensified anti-NCGS public campaigns over the past decade. Laws or bills in over 30 African countries criminalize or attempt to criminalize NCGS identities and same-sex intimacies. New, proposed legislations recommend punishment for academics, non-governmental organizations, and even family members who fail to report NCGSs to local enforcement authorities.
In the countries we studied, state recognition of an NCGS person’s full citizenship is crucial for accessing justice, health and social services - underlines Stark - However, informal interpretations of law as rendering NCGSs themselves illegal persons creates a hostile atmosphere and challenges that recognition. Experiences of violence, stigma, and discrimination are creating in NCGSs and NGO staff members a sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and depression.
In some areas, a lot has already been done by local officials and police to improve the situation. For example, one city had jails that had separate cells for NCGSs, so they could avoid the potential verbal, physical and sexual abuse from being put in men’s cells.
However, according to the project team, much work is still needed to reach the point where local government institutions have the knowledge and resources they need to negotiate between enforcing law and order while respecting the rights of minority groups to ensure peaceful community coexistence.
"While national laws do not in themselves tell what is happening on the ground, we are finding that national laws play a key role in how straight persons interpret and consent to collaboration with NGOs and the need for treatment of NCGSs as full citizens. In one studied country, police interpreted the law to say that NCGSs were non-citizens, and used the law as a mandate for predation, extortion, shaming and violence even when no actual sexual ‘acts’ had been alleged or proven. In another country, a constitutional decision merely reaffirmed the existing law in 2024, but this was interpreted by local authorities and healthcare providers as a new court declaration that NCGSs were illegal persons, and they refused to continue to treat NCGSs or to continue collaboration with NCGS-related organizations. Looking at more than one country will allow us to identify cause-and-effect patterns to explain violence across countries that could apply to other communities living under similar conditions" - Stark concludes.
See also other blog posts from the ACACIA Project:
11.2.2025: USAID Cuts May End the Dream of Non-Violent Future for LGBTQI+ People in Africa
18.2.2025: The Police Asked Doctors to Test if We Were Really ‘Gei’ – Four Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa
