Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays law

A person who … indirectly makes public show of same sex amorous relationship … is liable on conviction to a term of 10 years imprisonment...

By Cathy Kristofferson, January 13, 2014

David and Goodluck!

David and Goodluck!

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has surreptitiously signed the so-called Same Sex Prohibition Bill into law. Reports are that Jonathan actually signed the Bill, better known as the “Jail-All-The-Gays” Bill, quietly last week. News of it’s signing has only now been leaked.

The Bill received international condemnation when it was passed by the Nigerian Parliament back in May of 2013. As OBLOGDEE reported at the time, the United Nation’s High Commissioner condemned the pending law urging President Jonathan not to sign it. As did many foreign countries.

Like most so-called same-sex marriage prohibition bills, the Nigerian “Jail-All-The-Gays” Bill only pretends its focus is to ban marriage. In fact, the goal is to further criminalize LGBTI individuals and organizations where say sex is already criminalized:

A person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organizations directly or indirectly makes public show of [sic] dame sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of 10 years imprisonment.”


READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/56486.html

The law does now additionally criminalize anyone who dares to marry someone of the same gender with 14 years imprisonment. And stipulates 10 years imprisonment for those who dare to support or take part in any way in a same gender marriage ceremony.

But read that clause above again:

A person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organizations directly or indirectly makes public show of [sic] dame sex amorous relationship in Nigeria commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of 10 years imprisonment.”

Nigerian law now says that anyone taking part in any kind of organization that the Government construes as “a gay club” or organization will imprisoned for 10 years.  So in effect, any person who smiles, or looks sideways perhaps, at any individual who is of the same gender could fall prey to witch hunt sure to ensue and be sent off to prison for 10 years!

Keep in mind that gay sex has been banned in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, since colonial rule by the British. Prior to the “Jail-All-The-Gays” Bill’s introduction back in 2011, gays already faced open discrimination and abuse in a country divided by Christians and Muslims who almost uniformly oppose homosexuality.

Also keep in mind that Nigeria has the world’s third-largest population of people living with HIV and AIDS. Now any HIV/AIDS organization that the Nigerian government decides to cast as a “gay organization” will be outlawed and its employees imprisoned. Which means that once again raging homophobia will hurt efforts to stem a country greatly effected by the AIDS epidemic.

What will the United Nation and the European Union countries which spoke out initially against the Bill  do now? Will Nigeria be held out of compliance with foreign treaties they have signed? Will they be held out of compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Will they be held out compliance with the equality clause of their own Nigerian laws?

Publisher’s Note:

It seems that the Nigerian President was afraid of a huge international outcry prior to signing the Bill, yet how he could think it would never make the news defies logic.  Now that the story is out, it is absolutely incumbent upon us here in the United States to do two things, firstly to vehemently protest Nigeria and  this horrific law, including a call for boycotts and sanctions and secondly to stand by our LGBTI family in Nigeria by providing support for safe-housing and asylum in the West.

We also look forward to hearing more from Human Rights Campaign and other U.S. based organizations which have been noticeably silent on what is happening in Africa and Nigeria at this time.  Petitions are not enough. We need to protest outside the consulates of Nigeria around the world and we need to be advocating to our President, State Department and Congress for action.  Please keep an eye out for calls to action as this further unfolds.

ALSO – Re Uganda: It is critical that we make a LOT of Noise NOW vs Nigeria so Museveni sees that the world will not be happy if he assents to the BILL.

(Melanie Nathan – [email protected])

#NIGERIAJAILSGAYS

10 Urgent Actions You Can Take Against Anti-Gay Nigeria

#NIGERIAJAILSGAYS

By Melanie Nathan, January 13, 2014.

Screen Shot 2014-01-13 at 11.07.26 AMToday we heard in breaking news that Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has surreptitiously signed the so-called Same Sex Prohibition Bill into law. Reports are that Jonathan actually signed the Bill, better known as the “Jail-All-The-Gays” Bill, quietly last week. News of it’s signing has only now been leaked. The LGBT community around the World will not tolerate laws that criminalize sexuality and will vehemently protest countries which institute such laws, which serve as government sanctioned mechanisms for persecution.

READ THE 10 ACTIONS http://oblogdeeoblogda.me/2014/01/13/10-urgent-actions-you-can-take-against-anti-gay-nigeria/

Related articles:-

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

15 Comments on “Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays law”

  1. jerbearinsantafe January 13, 2014 at 9:59 AM #

    Reblogged this on JerBear's Queer World News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
    Truly shocking news. The world can not sit idly by.

  2. Dr. Rex January 13, 2014 at 12:38 PM #

    Another country???

  3. Dr. Rex January 13, 2014 at 12:39 PM #

    Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    NIGERIA …. another country??? SMH … going backwards!!

  4. tony January 14, 2014 at 8:33 AM #

    Melanie nonsense or numskull or what did you say your name is.who do you take nigerian for?a begger seeking international community for survival.your recommendations were set of stupid,disgusting shit like you are.Do you think we are slaves to america? Their Godless,deluded sense of freedom isnt ours.so better dont even mention Nigeria on filty
    things like that.America will be the list democratic nation in the world to lord their ways on nigerian.

    • Melanie Nathan January 14, 2014 at 9:50 AM #

      If you cannot take care of your own Nigerian family which includes Gay people, then we in the West who do care about them as human beings will do so for you! You are ging to jail good innocent people just for loving someone of the same sex. Who cares? who does it hurt? So you are going to hurt good people who are not criminals – then we in the West will boycott you and having nothing to do with you while we try and help our Nigerian brothers and sister who we care about. Why cant you care for ALL your people? The same way as the World helped Jews in Nazi Germany, we will help Gays In Homophobic Nigeria. And so you are saying we should have allowed the Nazis to jail and murder Jews and no one in the World should have helped . You see if Hitler did not care about those Jews – his OWN people – the rest of the world did care. Stop criminalizing innocent people and you will be re-accepted to the world.

      OH and why are there thousands and thousands of Nigerians pouring into the USA, clamoring to get VISAS here and streaming as refugees into South Africa? Because you take care of your people?

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. AIDS could rebound as Nigeria gets harsh anti-gay law | 76 CRIMES - January 13, 2014

    […] Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays law (oblogdeeoblogda.me) […]

  2. 10 Urgent Actions You Can Take Against Anti-Gay Nigeria | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - January 13, 2014

    […] we heard in breaking news that Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has surreptitiously signed the so-called Same Sex Prohibition Bill into law. Reports are that […]

  3. BREAKING: Nigerian president signs draconian anti-LGBT law | MasterAdrian's Weblog - January 13, 2014

    […] by several world leaders, including the United Nations Commissioner on Human Rights. According to O-Blog-Dee-O-Blog-Da, the law may have been signed last week, but news about it has only leaked out […]

  4. Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays law | Daily Queer News - January 14, 2014

    […] Read more […]

  5. Nigeria: President Signs Bill to Criminalize Gay Marriage, Homosexuality - January 14, 2014

    […] OBDOBD reports: […]

  6. CNN and AP Report on The Nigerian Gay Arrests | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - January 14, 2014

    […] we heard in breaking news that Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has surreptitiously signed the so-called Same Sex Prohibition Bill into law. Reports are that […]

  7. Calling on The Elders to Condemn Nigeria’s Anti-Gay laws | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - January 15, 2014

    […] out against Nigeria’s appalling new anti-gay law, which was surreptitiously signed into law by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan last […]

  8. U.S. Organizations Remain Silent while Nigerian Gays Desperate for Global Rally March 07 | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - February 13, 2014

    […] http://oblogdeeoblogda.me/2014/01/13/shock-amongst-gays-in-nigeria-as-president-signs-jail-the-gays-… […]

  9. Calling on FIFA to Expel Nigeria from World Cup Soccer in Brazil 2014 | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - February 16, 2014

    […] Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays law […]

  10. 2014’s Most Popular Posts on O-Blog-Dee-O-Blog-Da | O-blog-dee-o-blog-da - December 29, 2014

    […] Shock Amongst Gays in Nigeria as President signs Jail-The-Gays Law […]

Leave a Reply to Dr. Rex Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 438 other followers

Build a website with WordPress.com
%d bloggers like this: