Tag Archives: Lesbians in Nigeria

Nigeria: lesbian’s journey after forced marriage and rape

When Vivian, a 22-year-old lesbian, reached out for help through Qtalk, an online counseling app for LGBTIQ+ Nigerians, her words reflected the depth of her despair: “I don’t know how to live anymore. My parents forced this man on me, and now I’m pregnant after he raped me. I feel like my life is over.”

Vivian’s story is one of profound trauma and resilience. After her parents discovered her sexual orientation, they subjected her to a horrifying ordeal, coercing her into a situation meant to “correct” her identity. This culminated in sexual assault by a man they imposed upon her, leaving her pregnant and deeply traumatized. Isolated and betrayed by the very people who should have offered her unconditional support, Vivian turned to the online counseling platform as a last resort.

Continue reading at: https://76crimes.com/2025/01/20/qtalk-lesbian-journey/ (Source)

To support the Qtalk project financially, click HERE.

UN submission on discrimination and violence against lesbians

On 1 August 2021 Listening2Lesbians provided submissions in response to the following from the Commission on the Status of Women:

“Any individual, non-governmental organization, group or network may submit communications (complaints/appeals/petitions) to the Commission on the Status of Women containing information relating to alleged violations of human rights that affect the status of women in any country in the world. The Commission on the Status of Women considers such communications as part of its annual programme of work in order to identify emerging trends and patterns of injustice and discriminatory practices against women for purposes of policy formulation and development of strategies for the promotion of gender equality.”

Commission on the Status of Women: Communication Procedure

Information was provided to the UN on incidents dating back approximately 2.5 years across the 57 countries we have reported on in that time.

Legal, social and familial punishment of lesbians for failing to conform with the expectations imposed on women illuminates the status of women around the world. Homosexuality is understood to be a breach of sex-based expectations. Strictly enforced sex roles are accompanied by increased consequences for those who break them, individually or collectively. Lesbians, or women read as lesbians, are doubly punishable for their non-conformity, both overt and inferred.

Listening2Lesbians is not an expert on these countries and provided this information to augment and support the information provided by women from individual communities. We can only provide information on cases we have been able to locate and based our submissions solely around the available facts. Please note that we welcome corrections and updates.

We are painfully aware of the many communities not represented.

Anyone with information on missing communities is invited to contact us with information on reporting violence and discrimination against lesbians in their community.

Liz, Ari and Devorah @ Listening2Lesbians

Submissions:

Blackmail and rape: Nigerian lesbian experiences of meeting each other online

Image courtesy of Sarah

Chioma starts chatting with another lesbian, Blessing. She seems nice, reliable, the two young women begin to exchange intimate photos. And finally the day arrives when they will meet. Chioma is on the way to Blessing’s house when a man in military uniform approaches her: he says he is a colleague of Blessing’s father, that he knows she is homosexual and wants to take her to the police station, where they will arrest her and she will be sentenced to 14 years in prison. The threat is very realistic, Chioma is in a panic. She ends up following the stranger to a hotel, where he rapes her.

But the nightmare has only just begun. Two months later the man contacts her again and threatens her: if she does not give him two million naira (almost 4400 euros), he will post her naked photos online and out her as a lesbian. Chioma doesn’t know what to do: she doesn’t have that much money and in any case she can’t live forever under the man’s threats, which obviously will never stop. And so she tells her family everything. She’s not safe now, but at least she doesn’t have to go through everything alone.
(Translated)

Chioma inizia a chattare con un’altra ragazza lesbica, Blessing. Sembra simpatica, affidabile, le due giovani iniziano a scambiarsi foto intime. E finalmente arriva il giorno in cui si conosceranno. Chioma è sulla strada della casa di Blessing quando un uomo in uniforme militare l’avvicina: dice di essere un collega del padre di Blessing, di sapere che è omosessuale e di volerla spogliare per trascinarla al commissariato, dopo l’arresteranno per poi farla condannare a 14 anni di carcere. La minaccia è molto realistica, Chioma è nel panico. Finisce per seguire lo sconosciuto in un albergo, dove lui la violenta.

Ma l’incubo è solo cominciato. Due mesi dopo l’uomo si fa risentire e la minaccia: se non gli dà due milioni di naira (quasi 4400 euro), pubblicherà le sue foto nuda online e la smaschererà in quanto lesbica. Chioma non sa cosa fare: non ha tutti quei soldi e comunque non può vivere per sempre sotto le minacce di quell’uomo, che ovviamente non cesseranno mai. E così racconta tutto alla famiglia. Ora non è al sicuro, ma almeno non deve affrontare tutto da sola.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://www.ilgrandecolibri.com/ricatti-e-stupri-non-fermano-le-lesbiche-nigeriane-sul-web/ (Source)

Nigeria: The filmmakers risking jail with lesbian movie Ife

Two Nigerian filmmakers face the prospect of imprisonment if they ignore the stern warning of the authorities and proceed with the release of a movie about a lesbian relationship. 

The dramatic face-off with the regulators – the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) – is worthy of a film itself. 

Producer Pamela Adie and director Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim are determined that Ife (meaning “love” in the Yoruba language) reaches a Nigerian audience, but the NFVCB says it will not be approved as it violates the country’s strict laws on homosexuality.

To get around this, the filmmakers are planning a surprise online release to catch the regulators off-guard. The NFVCB, however, is diligently monitoring all digital platforms to prevent the movie from getting out.According to NFVCB boss Adebayo Thomas, Adie and Ikpe-Etim could be jailed for promoting homosexuality in a country where same-sex relationships are forbidden and can carry a 14-year sentence.

They are organising a private screening in the commercial capital, Lagos, at the end of the month, for which they believe they do not need to get permission. 

Ife will also get an international premiere in Canada in October.

Adie said the aim of the film was to show an accurate picture of lesbian and bisexual women in Nigerian movies.

If a lesbian woman does appear in a standard Nollywood movie they are often portrayed as being possessed, influenced by bad friends or forced into homosexuality and always needing “saving”, she told the BBC.

“You rarely see stories about LGBT people, especially about queer [sic] women that speak to the realities of our lives. 

“Ife was made to bridge the gap and to get the conversation going in Nigeria.”

Continue reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54070446 (source)

Lesbian activist takes Nigerian government to court to register organisation

Pamela Adie

Lesbian Equality and Empowerment Initiative, a non-profit organisation, has dragged the Corporate Affairs Commission before the Court of Appeal over the refusal to register it.

Pamela Adie, an LGBT activist, had in 2018 sued the commission for refusing to register the organisation but lost the case.

However, the activist disclosed on Twitter that she had filed a notice of appeal on the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court.

“Notice of appeal has been filed in the case of Pamela Adie V CAC. As some of you may be aware, I applied to register a non-profit called Lesbian Equality and Empowerment Initiative but was denied by the Nigerian government agency, CAC, because it said ‘lesbian’ was offensive.

Continue reading at: https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/02/03/lesbian-group-drags-cac-to-court/ (Source)

Original article: Lesbian activist loses battle in Nigerian court

Italy: Nigerian lesbian attacked and threatened

Jen Novara Lesbophobia
Two days ago (December 19), at the exit of Novara station, around 6 pm, one of our [Arcigay Rainbow Vercelli-Valsesia Territorial Committee’s] Nigerian members was attacked by a compatriot, Solomon. The young woman, whose nickname is Jen, knew her alleged attacker already and following his initial advances had immediately clarified that she was not interested in the company of men and that she was a lesbian.

On leaving the station Jen tried to avoid Solomon, who followed her and for the umpteenth time he insistently asked her out, not accepting a further refusal.

Solomon angrily addressed her with phrases such as “in our country these things are not allowed” but Jen responded clearly, saying “I am now in Italy, I am free to do what makes me feel good”. At that point Solomon continued to insult her, saying “you’re a shame!” before attacking her. He hit her face threatening “it doesn’t end here – in our country they kill lesbians and I’ll kill you”.

While Solomon beat her, a small group of Italians who observed the scene did not move a finger, not even to call the police.
(Translated)

Due giorni fa (19 dicembre), all’uscita della stazione di Novara, intorno alle ore 18, una nostra iscritta nigeriana è stata aggredita da un connazionale, tale Solomon. La ragazza, il cui soprannome è Jen, aveva conosciuto il suo aggressore in precedenza e fin da subito, in seguito ad alcune prime avances, aveva chiarito di non essere interessata alla compagnia di uomini e di essere lesbica.

All’uscita della stazione Jen ha cercato di evitare Solomon, che però l’ha seguita e per l’ennesima volta le ha insistentemente chiesto di uscire, non accettando un ulteriore rifiuto.

Solomon le ha indirizzato con rabbia frasi del tipo “nel nostro Paese queste cose non sono ammesse” ma Jen è stata nuovamente molto chiara rispondendo “ora sono in Italia, sono libera di fare ciò che mi fa stare bene”. A quel punto Solomon ha continuato ad insultarla, dicendole “sei una vergogna!”, per poi arrivare ad aggredirla colpendola al volto proseguendo con “non finisce qui, nel nostro Paese uccidono le lesbiche e ti ucciderò”.

Mentre Solomon la picchiava, un capannello di italiani che osservavano la scena non hanno mosso un dito, neanche per chiamare le forze dell’ordine.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://www.imolaoggi.it/2019/12/25/aggressione-omofoba-a-novara-nigeriano-picchia-connazionale/ (Source)

International Lesbian Day: Nigerian lesbian and Namibian lesbian marry in the Netherlands

judith.jpg

Mona is from Namibia, while Judith is from Nigeria.

In attendance were prominent lawyers, activists, and persons who flew in from the U.S., EU, UK, and Canada. Family and friends were also present including lots of LGBTIQ+ persons.

The wedding was officiated by renowned Nigerian gay reverend, Rev. Jide Rebirth Macaulay, founder of House of Rainbow, an LGBTIQ+ affirming faith-based organization.

Continue reading: https://nostringsng.com/nigerian-lesbian-couple-marries-netherlands/ (source)

Editor’s note: We have included this article as Lesbian Resistance, because homosexuality is illegal in the countries where both Mona and Judith come from.

Pamela Adie: Shining a light on lesbian experiences in Nigeria

pamela.jpg

“If you haven’t come out to yourself, it’s difficult to come out to [other] people … At first, it might look like a difficult task, like something that’ll never end or something that’ll keep going on but once you get over it, you’ll see that you have your whole life ahead of you.”

Pamela Adie’s words describe her documentary, Under the Rainbow, a film that serves as a ‘visual memoir about her personal journey of coming home to herself. Walking us through her experiences, the documentary, which is the first lesbian documentary from Nigeria, points to the realities of some sexual minorities in the country, particularly black lesbians who are often left out of conversations about equal rights.

Throughout her story, for every tablespoon about pain, there are three about comfort.

Her awareness and discomfort with the fixation with pain when it comes to narratives that centre queer experiences challenged her to share how rich queer people’s experiences are, to encourage people to look beyond the pain in the moment and to increase the visibility of multidimensional stories told by black Nigerian lesbians.

Continue reading: https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-22-00-shining-a-light-on-lesbian-experiences-in-nigeria (source)

Update: Nigerian lesbian activist wins UK asylum claim after 13-year battle

apata.jpg

The Home Office has granted refugee status to a prominent Nigerian LGBT activist, ending a 13-year battle over her right to remain in the UK.

Aderonke Apata, 50, says she knew she was gay from the age of 16 and was persecuted in Nigeria. She has been recognised internationally for her human rights work, and recently received Attitude magazine’s Pride award.

Apata arrived in the UK in 2004 but did not immediately claim asylum on the grounds of her sexuality. Until 2010, lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum seekers were often forcibly removed to their home countries if it was deemed safe for them to “live discreetly”.

In 2012 she filed an asylum claim but was considered by the Home Office to be lying about being in a lesbian relationship. Apata appealed, but was told by the judge: “What is believed is that you have presented yourself as a lesbian solely to establish a claim for international protection in an attempt to thwart your removal … It is considered that your actions are not genuine and simply a cynical way of gaining status in the UK.”

Continue reading: https://www.theguardian.com/
world/2017/aug/14/nigerian-gay-rights-activist-aderonke-apata-wins-uk-asylum-claim-13-year-battle?CMP=share_btn_fb
(source)

Original post: UK lesbophobia endangers asylum seeker

Nigeria: Kebbi State College of Science and Technology expels four students for being lesbians

Kebbi college of Health Sciences expel four female students for engaging in Lesbianism

KEBBI State College of Science and Technology in Jega has expelled four female students for engaging in lesbianism as part of a crackdown on homosexuality after they were caught having sexual intercourse.

Continue reading: http://www.nigerianwatch.com/kebbi-state-college-of-science-and-technology-expels-four-students-just-for-being-lesbians/ (source)

 

Refugee lesbians at the mercy of the German bureaucracy

Success Johnson and Diana Namusoke

[Diane] Namusoke, 48, and [Success] Johnson, 27, are two lesbian women from Uganda and Nigeria respectively, who have come to Germany in search of asylum. They’ve explained — first to the police officers who picked them up, then to the aid workers at the refugee centers where they were transferred, and then at their asylum application interview at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) — that they feared for their lives in their home countries. That as a lesbian woman, nowhere was safe. And now they’re in acute danger of being deported back to the places they have desperately been trying to escape.

Continue reading at: https://www.dw.com/en/lesbian-asylum-seekers-at-the-mercy-of-german-bureaucracy/a-47935658 (Source)

Nigeria: Sharia police arrest 11 women over ‘lesbian wedding’

Eleven young women were arrested in the northern Nigerian city of Kano for allegedly planning a lesbian wedding, the Islamic law-enforcement agency, the Hisbah, told AFP Thursday.

Continue reading at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/12/
nigeria-sharia-police-arrest-11-women-over-lesbian-wedding/
(source)

Lesbian activist loses battle in Nigerian court

Pamela Adie (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

A federal high court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking to register a lesbian advocacy organization in Nigeria.
Lesbian activist Pamela Adie sued the Corporate Affairs Commission after her application to register her organization, Lesbian Equality and Empowerment Initiatives, was rejected on the grounds that the name was misleading, offensive, contrary to public policy and in violation of the Nigerian law prohibiting same-sex marriage.
The organization’s primary objective is to advocate for the rights of sexual minority women in Nigeria.

Continue reading at: https://76crimes.com/2018/11/17/lesbian-activist-loses-battle-in-nigerian-court/ (source)

Update: Lesbian activist takes Nigerian government to court to register organisation

Nigeria: Smartphone maker Infinix targets lesbians

Infinix targets lesbians

The China-based phone manufacturing company has sponsored homophobic messages displayed on billboards placed around school campuses in Nigeria.

The University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) now has a large billboard near its campus with the homophobic slogan “Say No to Lesbianism, Homosexuality and Drug Abuse” sponsored by Infinix.

Continue reading at: https://76crimes.com/2018/11/13/smartphone-maker-launches-anti-gay-campaign-in-nigeria/ (Source)

Lesbian woman from Nigeria attempts suicide shortly before Home Office tries to deport her

nnekeobazee

A lesbian asylum seeker attempted to take her own life in order to stop herself being deported from the UK.

Nneka Obazee, 34, was meant to be flown on a charter flight to her home country of Nigeria but she overdosed on pain medication which led to her hospitalisation, according to activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.

Continue reading at: Lesbian woman from Nigeria attempts suicide shortly before Home Office tries to deport her | The Independent (Source)

Nigeria: Thugs attack ex-wife suspected of lesbian affair, victim flees to Canada

A Nigerian woman accused of lesbian sex has escaped to Canada after surviving an attack by thugs who she said were sent by her ex-husband. The attack and her escape occurred after she was released from police custody following her arrest on homosexuality charges at her ex-husband’s instigation.

Continue reading at: Nigeria: Thugs attack ex-wife suspected of lesbian affair | 76 CRIMES (Source)

Nigeria: Study reports harassment, expulsion for committing lesbianism on university campuses

A Nigerian researcher, Kehinde Okanlawon, has released a report on the experiences of gay and lesbian university students in Nigeria, detailing harassment they experienced.

The report, titled “Homophobic bullying in Nigerian schools: The experiences of LGBT university students,” was based on interviews with 14 gay and lesbian students at a university in Nigeria and on accounts of Nigerian LGBT students’ experiences compiled from other sources.

Continue reading at: 14 Nigerian university students talk about being gay on campus | 76 CRIMES

ERASURE: THE NEW NORMAL FOR LESBIANS BY @VABVOX

A Room of Our Own
A Feminist/Womanist Network

Victoria Brownworth
Daily Disquisitions

“Lesbian sexual identity and choice is being eroded, erased and elided. This is being done by the literal obliteration of lesbians by state-sponsored violence, by the “corrective rape of lesbians” (imagine the 12 year old Pearl Mali being given the worst sort of reparative therapy by her very own mother), by the harassment and violence, by the firings (lesbians face more job discrimination than any other group within the LGBT alliance), by the enforced and compulsory heterosexuality of every society on earth. Aderonke Apata has been forced, by men, to provide not just spoken testimony and a pending marriage license, but also a sex tape of her having sexual relations with her partner to “prove” her lesbianism to the men who want to erase that aspect of her identity–the very identity that puts her and millions of other lesbians at risk of imprisonment and/or death.”

Continue reading Victoria Brownworth and other contributors to A Room of Our Own at: Erasure: The New Normal for Lesbians by @VABVOX – A Room of Our Own (Source)

AND MORE Victoria Brownworth at: https://www.victoriabrownworth.com/

Lesbian asylum seeker says ex-husband will kill her if Britain deports her to Nigeria

A Nigerian woman held at Britain’s most infamous immigration detention center has pleaded with the authorities not to send her back to her home country, where her ex-husband is allegedly waiting to kill her.

Continue reading at: Lesbian asylum seeker says ex-husband will kill her if Britain deports her to Nigeria — RT UK (Source)

Lesbians in the News – 14 November 2015

Lesbians in the News 14 November 2015

Young lesbian couple found murdered

Tatianna Diz and Alexandra King

Tatianna Diz and Alexandra King

Searchers recovered the bodies of Alexandra King, 22, and Tatianna Diz, 20, from the French Broad River in Ashville, North Carolina. The couple had gone missing on October 27th after giving Pierre Lamont Griffin II a ride to a nearby apartment complex. Griffin was later arrested and charged with felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony first-degree murder, and reckless driving and fleeing to elude arrest in the murder of another man earlier in the evening. Griffin was initially considered a suspect in the couple’s murder, and has subsequently been charged with murder over their deaths.

Arts & Entertainment

  • Help make season 2 of The Lesbian Collective a reality by donating to their Kickstarter campaign. The Lavender Collective is a web-based comedy about a group of lesbians that meet up every week to talk stuff out.
  • Domestic violence organization, Safe Horizon, presented an all-female reading of Shakespeare’s Othello, titled “An Evening with Desdemona and Emilia,” on October 27th. The reading included out lesbian performer and playwright Lisa Kron and LGBT activist StaceyAnn Chin.
  • Nigerian director Elizabeth Funke Obisanya took away the best short film prize for her movie “Magda’s Lesbian Lover” at the Black Entertainment Film Fashion Television and Arts (BEFFTA) awards ceremony in London.

Laws, Politics and Policies

Social and Health Issues

  • Lesbian couples discuss the issues and difficulties they face when trying to conceive.
  • The first same-sex marriage certificate in Tokyo was issued to a lesbian couple on November 5th. While their certificate only applies to two wards at this time, many see it as an important first step towards full marriage equality in historically conservative Japan.
  • A study of 7,200 young adults from England found that LBG teenagers are twice as likely to be bullied and socially excluded at school, than their straight peers.
  • A new study out of the University of Essex is claiming that women are either bisexual or lesbian, and never straight. Among other things, the researchers are trying “to test the theory that because lesbians can be more masculine in many of their non-sexual behaviours (for example, the way they dress), they are also more masculine in their sexual responses.” Anyone else questioning the motivations and conclusions of this study?
  • A Change.org petition has been started to take the L out of LGBT. Petitioners are arguing that LGBT organizations are not only prioritizing T over L, but also “actively discriminate against L interests.”
  • The Mormon Church has announced that children of same-sex couples will be denied entry into the church until they are 18 years old, move out of their parents’ home and disavow all same-sex relationships. This announcement came soon after Salt Lake City elected its first lesbian mayor on November 11th.
  • The Curacao Tourist Board wants to welcome gay and lesbian travelers to experience the island’s ‘live and let live’ atmosphere.
  • With lesbian visibility an ever present issue, do we have language specific to lesbian communities or an archetypal “lesbian voice”? What lesbian specific language  do you see, and is it location specific?

Events

  • Aussie movie All About E arrives for a screening in NYC on December 2nd. Described as a “crime caper with strong lesbian characters,” it will also be released by Wolfe on DVD on December 1st.
  • The Lambda Literary Foundation is accepting applications for the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices to be held at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles beginning July 24, 2016. Applications are due by January 5, 2016.

Thanks to Lisa for compiling this fortnightly edition of Lesbians in the News.

If you have any other stories, please add them in the comments or email them to me at liz@listening2lesbians.com.