Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Tanzania face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents.

[4][5] Homosexuality in Tanzania is a socially taboo topic, and same-sex sexual acts (even in private and consensual) are criminal offences, punishable with life imprisonment.

According to the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project, 95%[a] of Tanzanian residents believed that homosexuality is a way of life that society shouldn't accept, which was the 7th-highest rate of non-acceptance in the 45 countries surveyed.

Despite this, there have been several Tanzanian human rights campaigners, activists, lawyers and feminists like Maria Sarungi, Fatma Karume, Mwanahamisi Singano, Carol Ndosi, Zara Kay, Khalifa Said, Goodluck Haule and many others who have openly supported LGBTQ rights whilst openly opposing state-sanctioned homophobia and dangerous rhetoric from government officials who have called for further persecution of these marginalized groups.

Promoters of anti-LGBTQ campaigns have included the former president Magufuli, Paul Makonda, Ally Hapi, and Hamisi Kigwangalla.

Homosexuals are known as shoga (plural: mashoga), and historically had certain social roles, such as drumming and playing music at marriages and other festivals.

Lesbians (known as msagaji or msago (plural: wasagaji or misago), literally 'grinders') also had certain societal roles, including doing tasks typically associated with men.

In 2015, Adebisi Ademola Alimi, then a lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin, discussed this omnipresent homophobia in, not only Tanzania, but in Africa as a whole.One factor is the increased popularity of fundamental Christianity, by way of American televangelists, since the 1980s.

This shows there is real confusion about Africa's past.Throughout Tanzania, sex acts between men are illegal and carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar outlaws same-sex sexual acts between women with a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment or a TSh 500,000/= fine.

The Penal Code of 1945 (as revised by the Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act, 1998) of Human rights in Tanzania provides as follows: Section 138A.

The Zanzibar Penal Code of 1934, as amended in 2004, provides as follows:[12] Section 150. and also who is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

In November 2018, Paul Makonda, Dar es Salaam's Regional Commissioner, announced that a special committee would seek to identify and punish homosexuals, prostitutes and online fraudsters in the city.

[3] The U.S. Department of State's 2013 Human Rights Report noted:[18] On June 19, [2013] Human Rights Watch and the Wake Up and Step Forward Coalition released a report including several detailed allegations of torture and abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals while in police custody.

The individual reported police raped and beat him on the soles of his feet with canes, electric wires, and water pipes.In 2003, over 300 Tanzanians protested against the arrival of a gay tour group.

[14] In 2004, several Islamic groups in Zanzibar began an effort to cleanse the nation of activities it considered sinful, including homosexuality.

At this UPR, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) publicly urged Tanzania to repeal its statutes that criminalize same-sex sexual activities.

Group arrests in connection with peaceful assemblies, non-attendance to HIV patients, as well as forcible evictions of persons due to their sexual orientation by local and religious communities have been reported.

Moreover, representatives of the groups and other human rights defenders may not be willing to make public statements in favor of tolerance and decriminalization for fear of reprisals.Tanzania refused.

[21] Mathias Meinrad Chikawe, the Tanzanian Minister of State and Good Governance, said in Geneva,[22] There was an issue raised on same-sex marriages, etc.

[26] In the Tanzanian Parliament on 20 June 2012, Membe responded to a question from MP Khatib Said Haji, about the position of the government on the pressure by Western countries demanding abolition of anti-gay laws.

According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, arrests of LGBT persons rarely led to prosecutions; usually they were a pretext for police to collect bribes or coerce sex from vulnerable people.

Nonetheless, the CHRAGG's [Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance] 2011 prison visits revealed that 'unnatural offenses' were among the most common reasons for pretrial detention of minors.