Richard Akon found a magaze for gay men Nigeria, left him vulnerable a place where homophobia is rife. Akon wr for CNN, talkg for the first time about beg btally attacked and havg to flee the untry.
Contents:
- GAY NIGERIA, BLACK MALE AMERI
- OPN: NIGERIA IS A LD-BLOOD UNTRY FOR GAY MEN – I HAVE THE SRS TO PROVE
- GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS
- MY GAY LIFE NIGERIA – ISOLATN, DANGER & FEAR
GAY NIGERIA, BLACK MALE AMERI
* gay story in nigeria *
After I was kidnapped and tortured Nigeria for beg gay and darg to speak openly about Ameri offered me refuge. I’ve trad one perilo inty — beg gay Nigeria — for yet another one: beg a Black man Ameri. As an openly gay man there, my bolst prry each time I stepped out of the hoe was to return home alive.
As a Black man Ameri, that has not untry was no place for a teenage boy like me, who was gay and mp.
Although this artifice, pecially the boots, beme a signature part of my wardrobe, didn’t do much to protect me om the rampant and vlent homophobia problem wh -swchg, wh drsg-to-f, is not that jt do not work (the eveng I was abducted Nigeria I was wearg Caterpillar steel toe boots), shovels the moral rponsibily onto the shoulrs of victims of thoughtls bigotry. Everythg after that would be the past tense, cludg your same week the vio of the shootg ath of Ahmd Arbery as he jogged near his home Geia — which amounted to a lynchg — was posted onle, a different vio tailg yet another horrific killg of a gay man a few om my hometown Nigeria was sent to my box.
OPN: NIGERIA IS A LD-BLOOD UNTRY FOR GAY MEN – I HAVE THE SRS TO PROVE
In 2017, I started A Nasty Boy magaze to validate and affirm the liv and experienc of gay men Nigeria. I wanted to start meangful nversatns around genr norms and masculy that speak specifilly to our reali as gay men wh a culture that is poisonoly patriarchal and eply homophobic. Agast a backdrop of adly anti-gay vlence, A Nasty Boy dared to be a haven for gay men Nigeria and, no time, received ternatnal attentn through CNN, BBC, The Guardian, The Enomist, Vogue, and others.
They acced me of beg gay and “spreadg a gay agenda, ” as they pummeled me; each punch was an asslt on who I was.
GAY IN NIGERIA: LGBT LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HOMOPHOBIC NATNS
They took my phone, forced me to unlock , and found further proof of my homosexualy. And yet, even this gome attack pal parison to the fatal btaly many Nigerian gay men have too often experienced the form of lynchgs or pillory wh tir before they’re set on fire and burnt alive—not for terrorism or worse, but for beg gay, for beg human, a sperately homophobic untry. In Nigeria, gay men are portrayed as ncers eatg eply to the fabric of society—tumors that mt be oblerated.
The feral Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibn) Act of 2014 says anyone found guilty of homosexualy fac up to 14 years prison. A 2013 PewGlobal rearch suggts 98% of Nigerians believe homosexualy should not be accepted by society.
MY GAY LIFE NIGERIA – ISOLATN, DANGER & FEAR
A 2017 survey by The Iniative for Equal Rights (TIERS), a Nigerian-based human rights anizatn, showed 90% of Nigerians support the ntued enforcement of Nigeria’s anti-gay laws. Homophobia is the tie that bds a divid untry; the one thg a natn of chronic ethnic loyalti, of relig tensn, of failed ernment, n agree upon.
Growg up Nigeria, I wnsed first-hand a eply graed culture of sid hyper-masculy and vilent homophobia. As a child, I was characterized as a “boy-girl” even before I knew the tglg, plex bety of beg gay.
In universy, I beme a social pariah and the poster child for “faggots” after beg outed by my bt iend on a mp that waged a ‘War on Homosexualy. Today, however, I wre this wh urgency my voice as a survivor of btal homophobia. I wre this knowg how suffotgly fearful the days followg a homophobic attack n be, and how the trma f a person’s life.