Challenge To Nigerian Anti-Gay Law Dismissed But LGBT Activists Hopeful

Since the infamous bill become law recently, many LGBT and human rights activists have pulled together resources to try to fight the law. Interestingly enough the first person to attempt to bring down the law is  a straight ally, Teriah Joseph Ebah, who does not live in Nigeria. The case was however dismissed as the court said the plaintiff could not prove how the law harmed him personally and hence he was not qualified to bring the case to the court. From what I’ve been told, this is not at all the end of the line, even though it is a setback of sorts but it leaves open the door for a future case. The clear problem is that the only ones who are affected by this ruling may have unique difficulties in actually bringing this case to court since it means that one has to admit to being gay for the law to be seen as a source of harm and coming out carries certain risks – loss of employment, verbal and physical attacks among others. However LGBT activists seem positive and I really hope z new, stronger case is made soon. Read the rest of the story here.

 

Ivorien Leaders Refuse To Join Their Anti-Gay Counterparts

The political leaders of Côte d’Ivoire have refused to pursue any anti-gay legislature unlike their backward counterparts in many other African countries, stating that they have more important things on their agenda than what people do in their bedrooms. I am happy that there are still leaders in the West African sub-region who still have common sense and put some of their people’s needs first.

 

As Support For Gay People Rises in Nigeria, Violence Against Them Rises Also

While the Police has begun seizing people’s phones at random and checking for incriminating pictures, luring and arresting suspected gay men all in the name of bribes curbing the homosexual menace, most gay men and women have bound to together to form support groups and networks and protect each other while others have taken to speaking against the law. There has been support from the heterosexual community such as Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka (whose piece requires a good dictionary to follow), musician Seun Kuti who also advocated for gay people to come out, and blogger Ayo Sogunro who succinctly (and satirically) explained why even heterosexual men and women should be worried about this new law.

On the hand, two gay men got were caught by a mob of young men and forced to have sex with each other. The episode was recorded on multiple mobile phones by onlookers and uploaded online. No one attempted to help them. I watched the video and every second of it broke my heart. The one thought going through my head was this could happen to me. There have been no comments from the Nigerian police on this issue.

A man was also outed on social media via pictures that were taken when he was having sex with another man. The pictures clearly showed his face and he was tagged in the post, thus making sure that everyone who saw the picture knew exactly who he was. People immediately began condemning him and calling for him to be arrested. He has since gone underground. The worst part of this entire spectacle is that it was orchestrated by another gay man. Talk about drama.

In other Nigerian news, petrol queues are starting to form due to shortage (real or induced by those with ‘vested interests’ – sometimes you never can tell). This is yet another problem that was placed lower down in the priority list as fighting homosexuality went up. I hope Nigerians are seeing their tax Naira at work.

 

Good Things Happen When We Least Expect Them To!

A former presidential candidate for an independent party, Mr Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, has come out publicly to say he supports gay rights and would support any groups advancing the agenda that gay people should be free to live as the choose. He called homosexuality  “a ‘victim-less’ crime” since  “it is between consenting adults in the privacy of their bedrooms” adding “let’s focus our energies on stuff that really hurt people.” He also said that “we are all God’s children and we all deserve to be loved. I will disagree with any religious leader or indeed anybody who says that homosexuals deserve to be cast out of society”.

 

Fallout From A Gay Wedding

Lawrence Kaala and Jimmy Sserwadda, two Ugandan gentlemen got married last month in Sweden. They had been dating in Uganda until Sserwadda was outed then verbally and physically assaulted by government forces after which he sought asylum in Sweden. There he met up with his former lover Kaala who was in Sweden at the time, the two rekindled their relationship and the rest is history. They have been billed as the first Ugandan gay couple to be legally wed and have been making headlines worldwide. However Sserwadda’s mother has been verbally harassed by Ugandans who claim the two have brought “shame” on their people. Sserwadda also has a son in the university and he has been the victim of verbal assault from colleagues and other members of the community. 

 

“Familiarity: The Gateway Drug to Empathy”

I must confess, though I find some TEDx programs and talks enlightening, a lot of them I don’t identify with. I do have the app and will occasionally check it out to see what’s new. This video I got to see via a friend’s recommendation and is one of the more interesting ones. It involves actor/writer/photographer iO Tillett Wright who is on a mission to photograph 10,000 faces across different cities in the US in her project entitled Self-Evident Truths as a way to bring people to see the modern day face of “gay” and challenge them to deny the LGBTQ family rights that are common to all human beings.

 

Off With Her Head!

I have to say that President Mahama is making some very fascinating changes in his new government. The most controversial decision to come out of Jubilee House lately so far is one of the new ministerial nominees – Mrs. Nana Oye Lithur. She a human human rights activist and lawyer who is well-known and respected by the gay community for her LGBT work and once said “Not even the President of Ghana can deny anybody his or her human rights, irrespective of the person’s sexual orientation, ethnic group, gender and what have you. These are guaranteed in our constitution and everybody in Ghana has an obligation to respect that constitution.” This was after the previous President (Mills) had said he would never support any move aimed towards legalizing homosexuality. Not surprisingly there have been some criticisms of her nomination as the  Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection. The most interesting (and dare I say disquieting) by far however, is a group calling themselves the Concerned Clergy Association which has said that she is ‘morally’ unfit for the position due to her gay rights work.

 

Cashing In On The “Homosexual Agenda”

I’m a calm person and not particularly given to rants (okay that may not be totally true). I also see myself as a (mostly) generous person and try to invest time and effort into helping others and give some financial help, however little, when  I cannot do more. It drives me insane when I realize that in trying to help someone or a cause, I have been taken advantage of or deceived. Enter the case of two young activists to whose cause I gave a donation so that they could work with some NGOs on LGBT rights in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Sometimes Mixed Feelings = Progress

There has been a bit of an interesting buzz caused by a Nigerian actor who was convicted for having “unnatural carnal relations” (in other words sex with a man) whilst both were under the influence. He pled guilty and is to serve three months in jail. I shudder to think of what life will be like for him when he gets out. However the bright spark of hope in all this is that fact that there was no unanimous homophobic celebration of the verdict. Apparently even the media weren’t crazy about it and a lot of people have publicly commented that the trial was a waste of time and resources. People’s minds are changing for the better and that is always a good thing, in my book anyway.

Read the full article here

 

When Saying I Love You Could Mean A Prison Sentence

Roger Jean-Claude Mbede just spent a year in prison and may spend two more for the apparently “heinous” crime of sending a text message to a man saying “I am very much in love w/u”. When I start thinking things are getting better, I get reminded that things are really still the same and people can be put in jail for something as harmless as such a text message.

Please sign the petition here. I just did.