In a country as queerphobic as Nigeria, safe spaces are few and far in-between. When former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill (SSMPA) into law, not only did same-sex marriage become illegal, but pro-LGBTQ organizing as a whole – with a penalty of up to ten years in prison for anyone who “registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organization” or “supports” the activities of such organizations.
What this law did was limit ways in which LGBTQ Nigerians could find each other and made safe spaces illegal. Of course, we still find ways to gather, but we do so at great risk, and usually in secret. The few LGBTQ clubs and events that have existed in Nigeria are strict about who can enter the space, which means invite-only, or somebody within the space who can vouch for you. Oftentimes these meetings happen at night, in nondescript buildings or at someone’s home. And even with all these precautions in place, there’s always the risk of police intervention. So we move in silence because homophobic laws like SSMPA tell queer people that our existence is not only criminal but shameful as well.
Organizations like The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS) Nigeria are pushing back against that narrative by openly advocating for LGBTQ rights, despite the risks. TIERS, which was founded in 2005, is dedicated to supporting the well-being of LGBTQ Nigerians. Whether through emergency funds for legal support and medical costs or on their online platforms where they also provide educational resources, TIERS are dedicated to crafting safe spaces for LGBTQ Nigerians to tell their stories. One place they’re doing a fantastic job is through their first-ever podcast” Q Convos“, which focuses on the experiences of queer Nigerian women!
In partnership with Stonewall, Q Convos provides an avenue for honest and open conversations about common topics in the LGBTQ community. Hosted by the former Head of Advocacy, Phidelia Imiegha, listeners are treated to in-depth discussions with stellar guests who provide nuance to issues such as the mental health effects of gender-based violence in Queer women and the nature of abuse dealt with by Queer women.
Violence against women as a group is a global issue, and the statistics are staggering. 1 in 3 women experience some form of violence in their lifetime, and that’s keeping in mind that a lot of women don’t even come forward about the violence they have faced. According to World Bank, 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence, and the perpetrators often don’t face any legal repercussions, especially when it comes to sexual violence.
Nigerian women specifically have to deal with a culture where everyday harassment is the norm, and only in the past decade or so have we seen major shifts in the response to this. Social media has been used to spread awareness about these issues, with hashtags like #JusticeforUwa and #JusticeforTina sparking a nationwide conversation about the lack of justice for victims and survivors of sexual violence in Nigeria.
At the height of the #EndSars protests of 2020, the Feminist Coalition provided most of the financial and legal support for the movement, and yet were still met with ridiculous amounts of pushback from people who didn’t believe that women should be at the forefront of such a movement. Even as Nigerians took to the streets to protest police violence, women and queer people still faced harassment and attacks. This tells us two things: Nigerian society doesn’t care about its women, and it doesn’t care about its queer people.
Despite this, when we have conversations about LGBTQ rights, we often leave queer women out despite the specific ways in which their identities as LGBTQ people and women intersect. This is why intersectionality is so important- all forms of oppression are tied to each other in complex ways. We can’t talk about sexism without talking about homophobia without talking about class, and TIERS seems to be aware of that.
On Q Convos, the conversation tends to focus on the violence that queer women face, both because they are women and because they are LGBTQ. As TIERS notes in their 2019 Human Rights Violations Report, “in developing strategies to eliminate gender-based violence, it is critical to recognize the various forms of systemic discrimination and how they intersect”. LGBTQ women in Nigeria may experience sexual violence with the intent to “turn them heterosexual”, or be forced into heterosexual marriages to protect their family image, which can leave them “perpetually unhappy and psychologically damaged”.
These are just some of the realities that queer Nigerian women are facing every day, and we can’t continue to have conversations about LGBTQ identity or women’s rights without highlighting their experiences. That’s why Q Convos is so important: it puts these conversations at the forefront, providing a space for queer Nigerian women who may not know where to find that kind of support. Even non-LGBTQ Nigerians can listen to an episode of Q Convos and learn about the discrimination that LGBTQ women face that they may not have been aware of. In the fight for the rights of marginalized people, awareness about the issues they face is key: it takes the fight out of the shadows that they are pushed into and brings it out into the light where they can no longer be ignored.
