Nigeria’s new extreme anti-gay law has brought the nation worldwide attention over the last few months over increased persecution of its LGBT citizens. Recently, Nigeria made global headlines when four men were publicly whipped after being convicted of gay sex.
According to the Associated Press, via the Huffington Post, the four men were part of a group of 20 men who were arrested after Nigeria passed its Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in January, which can punish citizens with up to 14 years in prison for being gay.
According to Dorothy Aken’Ova, convenor of the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights Network, the four men, who are between 20 and 22, were illegally forced to give confessions by law enforcement and should not have been convicted. She also explained that the men were sentenced to 15 lashings and they had to lie on the floor of the court to be whipped on their backsides.
Aken’Ova said the four men will face up to a year in prison if human rights organizations do not come up with an additional fine of 20,000 naira ($120) each.
Aken’Ova says that the men’s families refused to get legal representation and decided to negotiate with the judge quietly because of fear of the stigma and shame surrounding homosexuality, which Nigerians believe is an evil import from the West.
The hearings were originally to occur in Bauchi City, capital of the state of the same name, in January, but were delayed after the four men were stoned outside of the court by an angry mob.
The judge decided to hold secret hearings and reportedly showed leniency to the four men because they claimed they’d only had sex with men in the past and claimed they hadn’t engaged in homosexual acts any more.
However, a new set of four men will face hearings at a later date.
This is truly a sad and upsetting story about how some laws that strip people of their humanity, their freedom, and their rights do nothing but damage and lead to unnecessary bloodshed. These four men were just a few of the reported cases of men being unjustly persecuted in Nigeria and we fear that many more will either be thrown in jail for years for no good reason or be killed by their neighbors just for being who they are or for being wrongly accused of being gay. Unfortunately, their government, which is supposed to protect them, is doing everything it can to make their annihilation easy. –nicholas robinson
