Botswana has officially removed colonial-era laws criminalizing same-sex relations. Here’s what the change means for LGBTQ+ rights and what comes next.
The government of the southern African nation of Botswana has repealed the country’s colonial-era laws that criminalized same-sex relations between consenting adults.
In late March, the government published a notice saying the country’s Attorney General had removed several paragraphs from the country’s penal code, which referred to “Unnatural Offenses”. Botswana’s LGBTQ+ advocacy group Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) applauded the move, telling Mamba Online that “For many, these provisions were not just words on paper – they were lived realities. They affected access to healthcare, safety, employment, and the freedom to love and exist openly. Even after being declared unconstitutional, their continued presence in the law has sustained stigma, justified discrimination, and contributed to fear, silence, and exclusion within our communities.”
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The paragraphs were rendered unconstitutional in 2019 when the country’s high court ruled that criminalizing consensual same-sex relations violated the constitutional rights of LGBTQ+ Betswana (the plural demonym for citizens of Botswana) to dignity, liberty, privacy, and equality.
The country’s sodomy laws were a legacy of the country’s former status as a British protectorate. Botswana proclaimed independence from the United Kingdom in 1966.
Sodomy laws vary across African countries; most in the northern half of the continent continue to criminalize same-sex relations, while many in southern Africa have repealed such laws, or never implemented them in their history.
Botswana generally tracks ahead of many other countries on the continent for LGBTQ+ rights on paper, where LGBTQ+ Botswana can serve openly in the military, have a right to change their legal gender, and are constitutionally protected from discrimination in employment, housing, and business transactions on the basis of their sexual orientation.
The country’s laws do not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions, but in July, the high court will hear a case from two women challenging a provision in the country’s Marriage Act that prohibits same-sex couples from marrying. South Africa is currently the only sovereign nation in Africa that has legalized same-sex marriage; it is legal in some remaining territories of European countries—mostly islands offshore from the mainland, such as France’s Mayotte, Portugal’s Madeira, and Spain’s Canary Islands.
Recent studies on public sentiment have found that roughly half of Botswana would feel positive or indifferent to having an LGBTQ+ neighbor—tied with Mozambique. Only four African nations reported higher acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals: Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, and Cabo Verde.
Botswana is a sparsely populated, relatively wealthy country that ranks among the highest on the continent by Human Development Index (8th of 53 countries) and in gross domestic product per capita (6th of 53 countries). With a historically diamond-dependent economy, it’s a popular safari destination, with the majority of the country’s one million annual visitors concentrating in Chobe National Park, known for its large elephant populations, and the Okavango Delta Region.
Many former British colonies and protectorates in Africa have maintained colonial-era laws criminalizing same-sex relations. Some countries, such as Uganda, have implemented harsher penalties in the 21st century under the influence of American evangelical activists. Uganda’s sodomy laws date to 1902, when, similar to Botswana, it was also a British Protectorate, but the government passed laws in 2023 calling for punitive actions for same-sex relations, ranging from prison sentences to capital punishment in “aggravated” cases. Uganda has not carried out a sentence involving capital punishment for any crime since 2005.
While homosexuality is currently outlawed in 32 African countries, it was never criminalized in 11 countries, and decriminalized in 12 others. 10 countries in addition to Botswana, maintain anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, including Angola, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sāo Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, and South Africa.
LEGABIBO points to the landmark 2021 appeals court case upholding the 2019 decision decriminalizing same-sex relations: “Botswana’s legal history has already affirmed the place of LGBTQIA+ persons in our society. In the landmark 2021 judgment of the Attorney General v Motshidiemang, the Court of Appeal affirmed, ‘The Constitution protects the rights of all persons, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex. They are entitled to equal protection of the law and to live openly and freely in our society.’”
