Prediction: Gabon will make homosexuality a crime once again
But if it does, the economy of the west-central African nation could suffer.
Political observers in the Central African nation of Gabon predict that the country will soon make same-sex relations a crime again, just as it briefly was from 2019 to 2020.
Before 2019, modern Gabon had never criminalized gay sex. But in 2019, it enacted a law providing up to six months in prison for same-sex intimacy. Then, under international pressure and in what one observer called “obscure and opaque conditions”, the National Assembly repealed the anti-gay law.
More recently, after a military coup in 2023, the LGBTQ community feared that the ban would be restored. That fear remained after Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the coup, was elected to a seven-year term as president of Gabon in 2025.
Now, recent commentary in the Gabon Media Times predicts the passage of a new bill in the National Assembly that would punish same-sex intimacy with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 10 million CFA francs (about US $17,741). The bill would also ban “advocating or publicizing” homosexuality.
The reason: “A large segment of Gabonese public opinion, supported by religious and traditional authorities, perceives homosexuality as a foreign cultural aberration.”
However, the same commentary predicts that the Gabonese economy would suffer if the bill is enacted because such a human rights setback would violate promises that Gabon has made to international partners, including the European Union, and would jeopardize Gabon’s duty-free trade with the United States through the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act.
The bill is currently being reviewed in the assembly’s Committee on Laws, Administrative Affairs, and Human Rights.
