Over the Christmas holidays, parliamentary lawmakers in Senegal rejected a proposed bill that sought to double the jail time for people convicted under the country’s anti-sodomy law and imprison anyone who advocated publicly in favor of LGBTQ rights. Under the country’s current penal code, those convicted of committing “an indecent or unnatural act with an individual of his or her own sex” may be sentenced to up to five years in prison, and forced to pay a fine. The bill, as introduced last month, would have doubled that sentence to up to 10 years, plus a fine. The bill would also have effectively scuttled free speech rights by imposing a sentence of three to five years in prison, plus a fine, for anyone who advocates for LGBTQ rights or decriminalization of homosexuality, even on their private social media accounts. It also would have imprisoned intersex individuals, though it was unclear why they were targeted specifically, other than for merely existing.