HAPPENING NOW: LGBT Nigerians Jailed After Passage of New Anti-Gay Law

LGBTQ+ NIGERIANS ARE CELEBRATG PRI MONTH DEFIANCE OF ANTI-GAY LAW

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Xeenarh Mohammed, the executive director of the Lagos-based Iniative for Equal Rights (TIERS), said the law had historilly been ed to harass and blackmail gay people but there had not been any nvictns.

NIGERIA ANTI-GAY LAWS: FEARS OVER NEW LEGISLATN

LGBTQ+ Nigerians are gatherg to party and ph back agast anti-gay laws and societal norms this Pri Month. * nigeria gay law *

The acced say they were attendg a birthday Same Sex Marriage Prohibn Act, which banned gay relatnships and entrenched tolerance of sexual mori Nigerian society, was signed by Goodluck Jonathan, then print, January law ed an ternatnal outcry, wh nmnatn om global human rights anisatn and wtern ernments. Surveys have historilly shown high levels of homophobia Nigeria, but some have poted to what mpaigners say is a tentative, growg acceptance of gay men and June, high urt judg Botswana led that laws crimalisg same-sex relatns were unnstutnal and should be stck down, a major victory for gay rights mpaigners Ai. Botswana is regard as one of Ai’s most stable and mocratic natns, but homosexualy was outlawed unr the untry’s penal of, Mozambique and the Seychell have scrapped anti-gay laws recent judg rejected the precent set by India, which last year legalised gay sex between nsentg adults, as well as by a seri of other judgments across the Commonwealth and elsewhere, and said Kenya should make s own laws to reflect s own Tanzania, thori Dar Salaam, the biggt cy, have lnched a seri of crackdowns on gay people recent years.

Such provisns build on existg legislatn Nigeria, but go much further: while the lonial-era crimal and penal s outlawed sexual acts between members of the same sex, the SSMPA effectively crimaliz lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) persons based on sexual orientatn and genr inty. Many LGBT dividuals terviewed by Human Rights Watch said that prr to the enactment of the SSMPA January 2014, the general public objected to homosexualy primarily on the basis of relig beliefs and perceptns of what nstut Ain culture and tradn. For stance, Febary 2014 Gishiri village, Abuja, a group of approximately 50 people armed wh machet, clubs, whips, and metal wir dragged people om their hom and severely beat at least 14 men whom they spected of beg gay.

They told Human Rights Watch that members of the public rmed the police that gay men were gathered together and when police arrived and found a bag of ndoms that belonged to an HIV peer tor, they were all arrted. Interviewe, cludg reprentativ of mastream human rights anizatns, said the SSMPA has created opportuni for people to act out their homophobia wh btaly and whout fear of legal nsequenc.