Senegal's Top Court Blocked Its Own Same-Sex Marriage Ban — But Not for the Reason You'd Think

Same-sex marriage was never legal in Senegal. But until this summer, the constitution didn’t explicitly say it couldn’t be — it simply described marriage and family as “the natural and moral foundation of human society,” language vague enough that it named no genders at all. On June 29, Senegal’s National Assembly voted to close that gap, passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively between “a man and a woman.” The vote was unanimous: all 129 members present voted yes, none voted no.

Ten days later, Senegal’s Constitutional Council struck the amendment down. It’s a genuinely unusual turn of events, and one worth understanding clearly, because the reason has nothing to do with LGBTQ+ rights at all.

Why the court actually blocked it

The marriage-ban language wasn’t the whole bill. It was folded into a much larger package of constitutional changes that reworked the balance of power between Senegal’s presidency and its parliament — changes that, among other things, would have curtailed some of the president’s own authority and had implications for state finances. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s government referred the matter to the Constitutional Council, objecting to the procedure used to adopt the amendments and their impact on executive power. On July 9, the Council agreed, ruling that Parliament had not followed the proper constitutional procedure for a change of this scope. The entire bill — marriage-ban language included — was voided.

In other words: Senegal’s highest court didn’t rule that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, or object to the idea on human rights grounds. It ruled that lawmakers used the wrong process to try to pass it, in a fight that was really about executive power. The Council’s decision means the current, ambiguous constitutional language on marriage remains in effect for now — but it also means the door stays open for Senegal’s government to bring back a narrower version of the same ban, structured to survive procedural review.

The broader picture in Senegal

However narrow this particular ruling is, it shouldn’t be read as a sign that things are getting easier for LGBTQ+ people in Senegal. Quite the opposite. Consensual same-sex relations are already criminalized under a colonial-era penal code, and lawmakers made that law considerably harsher earlier this year, doubling penalties for “unnatural acts” — a category that also includes bestiality and necrophilia in Senegalese law — to a range of five to ten years in prison. Since that change took effect, Senegal has recorded convictions under the toughened statute, including a widely reported case in which a 24-year-old laborer received a six-year sentence.

Rights groups describe an atmosphere of escalating pressure rather than a single dramatic crackdown: political rhetoric describing LGBTQ+ people as a threat to Senegalese values, increased social stigma, and a legal system that gives prosecutors real teeth to act on it. The marriage amendment was, in that context, less a standalone proposal than the next logical step in a broader campaign — one that a legislature voting 129 to 0 clearly has the appetite to pursue again.

What to watch

Because the Council’s objection was procedural rather than substantive, Senegalese lawmakers have a clear path to reintroduce marriage-ban language on its own, separated from the disputed executive-power provisions that got the whole bill thrown out. Given the unanimous first vote, there’s little reason to expect resistance if that happens. For now, the amendment is dead — but the political consensus behind it is very much alive.