U.S. hate group MassResistance linked to anti‑lgbtq+ crackdowns in Senegal and Ghana

A U.S.-based Christian nationalist organisation, MassResistance, has acknowledged working directly with anti‑LGBTQ+ activists in Senegal and Ghana to support sweeping new laws aimed at criminalising queer people. Activists in both countries have confirmed the group’s involvement, telling Reuters they received advice and strategic guidance from MassResistance while pushing for harsher penalties on same‑sex relations.

In Senegal, Parliament approved legislation in March that doubles prison sentences for same‑sex relations to between five and ten years, with the harshest penalties applied when minors are involved. MassResistance publicly celebrated the bill’s passage, framing it as part of a broader global movement against what it calls “LGBT ideology.” The group’s field director, Arthur Schaper, said Senegalese organisations contacted them in late 2024—after the election of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye—whose campaign promised to toughen anti‑LGBTQ+ laws. Schaper described working with the network And Samm Jikko Yi on tactics for political mobilisation and advocacy.

MassResistance’s rhetoric, which includes claims of “disease” and “dysfunction” associated with queer lives, mirrors policies the group pushes in the United States. It has recently backed copy‑and‑paste resolutions in five U.S. state legislatures seeking to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruling that legalised marriage equality nationwide.

The group is applying the same playbook in Ghana, where lawmakers are advancing new laws to expand colonial‑era criminalisation and outlaw the “promotion” or “support” of LGBTQ+ activities. Frank Mackay Anim‑Appiah of the Ghanaian group Freedom International told Reuters that he and Schaper have exchanged materials and discussed joint strategies. He added that MassResistance is helping secure funding from unnamed donors, saying he sees Schaper as a colleague in a “common battle.”
The revelations show how U.S. extremist groups are exporting anti‑LGBTQ+ ideology and directly shaping laws that endanger queer people across Africa.