Paper short abstract:

This paper will bring into picture recent challenges to homosexual tolerance in Tanzania by the state as represented in the social media.

Paper long abstract:

The politics around same-sex relationships in Africa has turned into legal debates and there is a lot of ongoing negative speeches and homophobic actions directed towards homosexuals. This is the same case in Tanzania where homosexuality is considered illegal and there is a strict law of 30 years imprisonment for anyone involved in any form of same sex relationship. This paper aims at bringing into picture the challenges facing tolerance of towards gay men by the state as represented in the social media. Social media in Tanzania has not just helped gay men in forming their own communities as well as well as providing a platform for sharing different issues but also has created new forms of openness increase possibilities for activism, countering homophobia and gender based violence. The recent years have experienced the state presenting a number of discriminatory speeches, activists getting arrested and banning of NGOs as well as programs providing services targeting gay men in Tanzania. All these created a number of debates in the social media and this paper will basically analyze social media responses towards homosexuality among men by capturing people's responses from Facebook pages and groups as well as Instagram pages and websites. These responses will be presented in terms of public discourse, political strategy, and legal argument.