After the largest arrest of LGBTQIA people in recent Nigerian history, D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) has joined other openly LGBTQIA elected officials in a crusade against Nigeria and other foreign governments that impose anti-LGBTQIA laws.
In a show of solidarity with the dozens of LGBTQIA Nigerians who’ve been criminally charged for attending a same-sex wedding, Parker will introduce a ceremonial resolution before the D.C. Council in October affirming support for LGBTQIA rights in Nigeria.
“Representation matters to reflect the humanity of Black queer people that have been here since the beginning of time,” Parker said.
During the latter part of August, Nigerian law enforcement officials broke up what was alleged to be a same-sex wedding in Nigeria’s Delta region. According to reports coming out of Abuja, Nigeria, nearly 70 out of the 200 who were arrested have been charged with violating a penal code that carries a sentence of 14 years.
They have since been released on bail. For Parker, however, the fight is far from over.
“We are protesting Nigeria, but could protest other countries where Black queer people are being prosecuted, killed on our streets and hunted,” Parker said. “I stand in solidarity to call on the Nigerian legislature to roll back policies that harm Black people. Black lives do matter, including queer lives.”
Black LGBTQIA Lawmakers Stand Firm Against the Nigerian Government
On Sept. 12, Parker, along with Maryland State Delegates Gabriel Acevero (D-District 39-Montgomery County) and Ashanti Martinez (D-District 22-Prince George’s County), and Prince George’s County Council member Krystal Oriadha (D-District 7), organized a protest in front of the Embassy of Nigeria in Northwest.
During the protest, the cadre of openly LGBTQIA Black elected officials called on the U.S. State Department to pressure the Nigerian government into changing course on what they described as a violation of human rights.
In their appeal, they went as far as to propose that the U.S. and other Western entities impose economic sanctions on Nigeria, the severity of which depends on the level of harm inflicted upon openly LGBTQIA Nigerians.
The protest, coordinated by the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), also allowed each lawmaker to weigh in on current developments in Nigeria, and reflect on their decision to stand firm in their identity while serving in office.
Their goal, as explained by Oriadha, centered on dispelling the notion that the LGBTQIA existence is a Western concept imposed on African people on the continent and in the Diaspora.
Oriadha, who’s of Kenyan descent, said that her father has accepted her and other members of the LGBTQIA community. She said the same remains true of continental Africans living in the D.C. metropolitan region.
“There is a myth of a cultural divide and that the African-American community is holistically homophobic, but we have allies in the African community who stand against what’s happening in Nigeria,” Oriadha said.
“We are unified to make sure our bodies and identities are not erased from conversations about LGBTQIA rights. We want to make sure that the attacks stop and we open up diverse communities.”
A Battle of Culture and Values on the African Continent
The situation in Nigeria comes months after lawmakers in Uganda passed legislation reaffirming a current statute that imposes a life sentence for same-sex conduct.
The bill also increases the penalty for same-sex conduct by 10 years while levying the death penalty in certain cases, and further institutionalizing a system that censors LGBTQIA activists and punishes family and friends who don’t report same-sex activity.
After the World Bank suspended Uganda’s funding in September, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he wouldn’t capitulate to pressure from foreign institutions, going as far to suggest that he has already adjusted Uganda’s budget to reduce foreign dependence.
Throughout much of Africa, LGBTQIA rights are limited, other than in South Africa and Cape Verde, both of which are considered countries friendly to LGBTQIA Black people.
South Africa in particular has legalized same-sex marriage and installed constitutional protections for members of the LGBTQIA community. Meanwhile, Nigeria has joined Uganda, Somalia, Somaliland, and Mauritania in imposing the death penalty for LGBTQIA-related sexual acts.
Sudan, Gambia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone have laws on the books through which people convicted of performing such acts can be imprisoned for life.
During a visit to Ghana earlier this year, Vice President Kamala Harris (D) mentioned Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ bill, touting it as a human rights issue. Alban Bagbin, Ghana’s speaker of parliament, later decried Harris’ statement as a violation of democratic values and Ghana’s right to determine its own fate without outside interference.
Months later, Ghana’s supreme court dismissed a legal challenge to the impending passage of a string of anti-LGBTQIA laws through Ghana’s parliament.
D.C. metropolitan area organizer Ayo Kimathi shares perspectives similar to Bagbin. He told The Informer that Africa has become the last battleground in Western institutions’ campaign to impose homosexuality on the rest of the world.
Kimathi, also known as the Irritated Genie of Soufeese, has spent several years railing against the movement for LBGTQIA rights. In recent months, he has made the rounds at school board meetings and council hearings throughout Maryland to speak out against the inclusion of LGBTIA-themed books in school curricula.
For Kimathi, messages about gender fluidity and same-sex marriage are detrimental to the nuclear family structure. He has cemented this viewpoint for more than 20 years through the release of books and travels to the African continent, where he said he has met legions of like-minded people who want to maintain ancient customs, attitudes, traditions and values.
In his 2005 book “War on the Horizon: Black Resistance to the Homophile Assault” for example, Kimathi designates the LGBTQIA paradigm as a concept that’s foreign to Africa.
“The people who are in favor of homosexuality [in Africa] are either being funded by the west or negatively influenced by the degenerate aspects of Black American culture,” said Kimathi, leader of the Straight Black Pride Movement.
“They watch the videos and are being influenced. They get impacted by the sexuality in the music and start getting pulled into the LBGTQ direction,” Kimathi added. “Culturally, the people in Africa are against it but it’s penetrating the culture because of Western money and Western media.”
Advocates Continue to Make Connections on the Ground
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to establish contact with LGBTQIA community members living in Nigeria.
Victoria Kirby York, NBJC’s director of public policy and programs, said she has been in contact with LBGTQ activists in Nigeria in recent weeks, some of whom have acknowledged how sanctions imposed on Nigeria by the U.S. government and other foreign institutions could further exacerbate economic issues befalling the West African nation.
That’s why instead of outright sanctions, she has advocated for an alternative that still benefits those who’ve been marginalized in Nigeria.
A 2016 Human Rights Watch report highlighted the extortion, physical and sexual violence, torture and denial of governmental funds that LGBTQIA Nigerians experienced after the passage of Nigeria’s anti-LGBTQIA laws a couple of years prior.
On Sept. 12, York stood in front of the Embassy of Nigeria alongside Parker, Acevero, Martinez and Oriadha. For her, the battle has become that for the safety of Nigeria’s LGBTQIA community.
“We’re pushing for funding to be used for civil society organizations that support LGBTQ people, which includes HIV treatment for those who are scared for others to know about their identity, and those who provide safe housing for people who have to go into hiding, or even legal support to their families,” York told The Informer. “We need to feel loved, safe and affirmed no matter where we go. The fact that people are in jail for celebrating love is unacceptable, inhumane and unbiblical.”
