According to the 2013 Pew Global Attitudes Project, 97%[2] of Senegal residents believe that homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept,[3] a figure unchanged from 2007.

Article 319 in the Senegalese Penal Code states the following: Sans préjudice des peines plus graves prévues par les alinéas qui précèdent ou par les articles 320 et 321 du présent Code, sera puni d'un emprisonnement d'un à cinq ans et d'une amende de 100.000 à 1.500.000 francs, quiconque aura commis un acte impudique ou contre nature avec un individu de son sexe.

Si l'acte a été commis avec un mineur de 21 ans, le maximum de la peine sera toujours prononcé.Translated in English, Article 319 states the following:[5][b]: Without prejudice to the more serious penalties provided for in the preceding paragraphs or by articles 320 and 321 of this Code, whoever will have committed an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years and by a fine of 100,000 to 1,500,000 francs.

If the act was committed with a person below the age of 21, the maximum penalty will always be applied.In 2016, Senegalese President Macky Sall has said he will never legalize gay sex.

[8] In 2008, Dakar's Icone magazine reported on and published photographs of an alleged gay marriage that had taken place in a private home in Senegal.

[9] On 19 December 2008, nine men were arrested on charges of homosexuality in a private flat in Dakar, allegedly after police received an anonymous tip.

[11][12][13] The judge said that AIDES Senegal was a "cover to recruit or organize meetings for homosexuals, under the pretext of providing HIV/AIDS prevention programmes".

[14] Shortly thereafter, Imam and Member of Parliament Mbaye Niang organized a march to protest both homosexuality in general and the government intervention that allowed for the release of the men.

There were multiple reports around the same time of people digging up the bodies of deceased "goor-gigen" (a Senegalese term for man-woman) in cemeteries.

[17] Local and international press reported in May 2009 that the corpse of a man reputed to have been homosexual was twice disinterred from a Muslim cemetery in Thies.

[18] The U.S. Department of State's 2011 Human Rights Report found that,[19] In the recent past[,] gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons often faced criminal prosecution and widespread discrimination, social intolerance, and acts of violence.

A report by the Panos Institute West Africa released on 20 July found that local media contributed to negative societal attitudes toward LGBT persons.

Finally, successful legal challenges to the law used to prosecute gays and lesbians for consensual sexual activity may have helped curtail its use by prosecutors.The U.S. Department of State's 2012 Human Rights Report found that,[20] LGBT persons often faced arrest, widespread discrimination, social intolerance, and acts of violence [in 2012].

Senegalese ... [non-governmental organizations] worked actively on LGBT rights issues, but because of laws against homosexuality and social stigma, they maintained an exceedingly low profile.

In October a court in Dakar sentenced Tasmir Jupiter Ndiaye to four years in prison and fined him 200,000 CFA francs ($400) for violating laws prohibiting "acts against nature" in addition to charges of illegal possession of arms and battery, after he purportedly refused to pay another man, Matar Diop, for sexual services.

[21] While visiting Senegal in June, United States President Barack Obama called for African countries to give gays equal rights under the law.

[24] Before this trip, the Obama administration had been characterized as taking a "cautious" approach to the promotion of gay rights in Africa, to avoid "igniting a backlash that could endanger local activists.

The arrest came shortly after the conviction in early September of a local chief, Cheikh Abdel Kalifa Karaboué, for drugging and raping a male co-worker.

[26][27] On the 28th of October 2023, in Kaolack, a group of individuals exhumed the body of Cheikh Fall, a gay man, and subsequently set it on fire.

And Samm Jikko Yi, an advocacy group pushing for stricter penalties for gay sex, also expressed disapproval of the "mob justice."

What has happened is that there have been situations where shocking behavior which ran counter to our religious beliefs and morality which [unintelligible] punishes unnatural sexual relations.

The group recommended that Senegal, "Pay particular attention to detentions on the grounds of offending decency or public morality, with a view to avoiding any possible discrimination against persons of a different sexual orientation".