Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Tanzania face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Homosexuality in Tanzania is a socially taboo topic, and same-sex sexual acts (even in private and consensual) are criminal offences, punishable with life imprisonment. The law also punishes heterosexuals who engage in oral sex and anal intercourse. According to the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project, 95 percent of Tanzanian residents believed that homosexuality is a way of life that society should not accept, which was the seventh-highest rate of non-acceptance in the 45 countries surveyed. According to Afrobarometer 2020 poll only 10% of Tanzanians would be tolerant of someone with a different sexual orientation which is among the lowest in Africa but higher than a 2007 poll. In recent years, Tanzania has become particularly hostile to LGBT people. In October 2017, it deported several HIV/AIDS groups on the basis of "promoting homosexuality" (Tanzania has a high HIV/AIDS rate and reportedly one million people are infected). The Government has also increasingly resorted to homophobic rhetoric, believing that homosexuality is "un-African". In 2018, a so-called "witch hunt" was declared against gay people in Dar es Salaam, where gay people were forced to endure anal examinations and torture. Tanzania has a bad human rights record. Government respect for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is declining. Despite this there have been several Tanzanian human rights campaigners, activists, lawyers and Feminists like Maria Sarungi, Fatma Karume, Mwanahamisi Singano Tundu Lissu, Zara Kay, Khalifa Said, Goodluck Haule and many others who have openly supported LGBT rights whilst openly opposing state sanctioned homophobia and dangerous rhetoric from government officials who have called for further persecution of these marginalized groups from people like the former president Magufuli himself, Paul Makonda, Ally Hapi, Hamisi Kigwangalla. History Prior to colonisation, various modern-day Tanzanian ethnic groups accepted homosexuality or viewed it with indifference. The Swahili people had traditions of acceptance towards homosexuality. Homosexuals are known as (plural: ), and historically had certain social roles, such as drumming and playing music at marriages and other festivals. The word was also used by women to refer to "friends". Over time, relationships turned into economic relations, with poorer young men being paid by richer older men (, plural: ) for sexual relations. Socially, only the were regarded as "homosexual", the would usually have a wife. Lesbians relationships were also commonplace in Swahili society. Lesbians (known