Bisi Alimi doesn't need any other introduction, but for many who doesn't know him, he was the first Nigerian Gay that came out on Tv back in 2004, he is also a Gay Activist. in his interview with Christiane Amanpour he speaks on the just signed bill. his words below;
“There were so many things we don’t talk about,” Alimi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “My career was on the line, I was going to be outed by the media.”
“There were so many things we don’t talk about,” Alimi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. “My career was on the line, I was going to be outed by the media.”
“I have a responsibility to stand up for the community, to give a face to the community, to demystify the old arguments that there are no homosexuals in Nigeria,” he said.
The discussion “was more of victimization rather than having an intelligent, adult conversation around these issues,” he said.
“People were not ready to educate themselves. And this created a lot of problems for the LGBT community in Nigeria.”
“I couldn’t get a job, I left university, nobody was going to employ me, my life was constantly in danger, I was always beaten, arrested by the police, discharged.”
Parliament passed the bill last year, so why did the president sign it now?
“He has been boxed to a corner,” Alimi said, “I know, like so many other Nigerians know, that this is a distraction.”
“How many Nigerians know…what this law means? Or how many Nigerians have an understanding outside of religion what exactly we talk about when we talk about sexuality?”
“Why then should religion be the basis of putting a law in place in a secular state?”
The discussion “was more of victimization rather than having an intelligent, adult conversation around these issues,” he said.
“People were not ready to educate themselves. And this created a lot of problems for the LGBT community in Nigeria.”
“I couldn’t get a job, I left university, nobody was going to employ me, my life was constantly in danger, I was always beaten, arrested by the police, discharged.”
Parliament passed the bill last year, so why did the president sign it now?
“He has been boxed to a corner,” Alimi said, “I know, like so many other Nigerians know, that this is a distraction.”
“How many Nigerians know…what this law means? Or how many Nigerians have an understanding outside of religion what exactly we talk about when we talk about sexuality?”
“Why then should religion be the basis of putting a law in place in a secular state?”
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