Gay In Nigeria: LGBT Life In One Of The World’s Most Homophobic Natns

Contents:

• MEET THE FIRST MAN TO E OUT AS GAY ON NIGERIAN TELEVISN
• LGBTQ ACTIVIST AND HIS HBAND MAKE HISTORY AS THE FIRST GAY COUPLE TO APPEAR ON NIGERIAN TELEVISN
• ‘I WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO COME OUT AS GAY ON LIVE TV NIGERIA’
• GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS

MEET THE FIRST MAN TO E OUT AS GAY ON NIGERIAN TELEVISN

In January, when Nigeria signed a law that not only banned gay marriage but imposed a 14-year jail term for same-sex relatns, the untry's new policy placed at the heart of a global schism over gay while Nigeria's new legislatn may have ptured worldwi attentn, the hostily toward homosexuals Nigeria wasn't example, take the se of Bisi Alimi, a gay rights activist who is believed to have been one of the first Nigerian gay men to e out on natnal televisn back 2004. And gog to Soho and seeg gay people, and she hadn't believed gay people existed – there are no gay people Nigeria, y'know? He said, there are no gay people issu are gog on my life, and I knew I had to fd a way to rolve the crisis.

So I picked up my phone, and I rang the producer and I said, "I'm a gay guy and I'd like to talk about on your show.

LGBTQ ACTIVIST AND HIS HBAND MAKE HISTORY AS THE FIRST GAY COUPLE TO APPEAR ON NIGERIAN TELEVISN

I've never been back sce To a lot of the ternatnal muny, gay rights Nigeria really me to the spotlight January, wh the ban on gay marriage.

‘I WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO COME OUT AS GAY ON LIVE TV NIGERIA’

BA: I thk to say that wasn't until this year that the whole "gay agenda" issue – the harassment of LGBT – actually got the mastream...

GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS

What we have, even the se of Rsia, is banng gay propaganda, not banng same-sex relatnships. Thgs that wouldn't happen before are happeng There was one statistic I saw, around the time of the gay marriage ban, om Pew Global Rearch, that said that 98 percent of Nigerians polled felt society should not accept homosexualy. I remember, when I was on a BBC program wh a director of the pollg pany om Nigeria, and I remember sayg, "You n't ask an average Nigerian if he is favor of gay marriage.

We don't need gay marriage Nigeria, what we need is a rpect for the fundamental human rights of every Nigerian, irrpective of whether they are male or female, straight or gay, able or disabled, rich or poor. So when you hear the word "gay, " the mental picture that to someon md will be, y'know, someone shaggg somebody. Or is that 's good for news, 's good for journalists, 's good for people to wre somethg Back to somethg you said earlier: It sometim seems like Nigeria is overshadowed by Rsia and Uganda the global bate over gay rights.

Also, apart om the issue of rights, there is the issue of the gay man Lagos who has jt been fired om his work, who really wanted to take re of himself and pay his bills, pay for his rent, and jt get back. Wh Uganda there's as much of a theme of gay rights as human rights as there are also s where there are dividual issu. So for example, the s we saw Uganda, where the police were actually gog unrground to spy [on gay groups], maybe that wouldn't happen the se of Nigeria, so we need to addrs that issue squarely.