Nigerian tabloid warns of the ‘danger’ of homosexual ‘addicts’ and we’d laugh if it wasn’t so relentlessly homophobic
Kenyan LGBT+ advocates outside the Nigerian High Commission in 2014 (Simon Maina/AFP/Getty)
The Sun in Nigeria has published a discriminatory diatribe about the rise in “homosexual addicts” that is as bizarre as it is worrying.
Nigeria is among the most dangerous countries in the world for LGBT+ people. Homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty under Sharia law, and even discussion about LGBT+ rights is criminalised.
Yesterday’s column in The Sun Nigeria – not affiliated with Richard Murdoch’s News Corp tabloid – unashamedly feeds into this pervasive homophobia with the headline: “Danger as young people engage more in homosexuality”.
Beginning with a “chilling confession” from a gay sex worker that turns out to be an ordinary description of ordinary sex work, the unnamed author then launches into alarmist claims that “a dreadful sin committed by sick men is spreading its tentacles like an octopus and pulling in many more young people”.
The article asserts that homosexuality has become a common practice among young boys in boarding schools, who now see it as normal.
The problem with this, beyond the obvious “hell fire” that awaits them, is that “sufferers wear adult diaper like babies because of the damage done to their anus over time”. Apparently.
Extrapolating from an anonymous confession from teenage students who allegedly engage in “the devilish practice”, the author describes in great detail how relationships form between young boys and their “student-homosexual-partner wife”.
Another anonymous ‘confession’ from a former student evokes the age-old parallel between homosexuality and paedophilia, claiming that he was abused by an uncle as a young child and then “transmitted” this to his peers.
A man questioning LGBT+ killings during a march marking the National Day of Mourning, commemorating lives lost to violent killings and mass displacement (STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP/ Getty)
“From that night that was how I got initiated into homosexuality,” the source says. “When I got back to school, I tried it quietly on my bunkmate and it worked. My bunkmate became my wife.”
Perhaps most bizarre is the section dedicated to understanding how “hardened homosexuals quickly identify themselves in public” – although it should of course be noted that “their popular ‘pink’ colour normally sells them out”.
As an example of the sinister subtlety with which gay men supposedly identify each other, the author gives the account of a handsome pastor who met his “crime partner” in a pharmacy.
“The moment I looked at the shop attendant, a devilish connecting chemistry ran through our spine and he winked at me to signify his loyalty as a homosexual,” the pastor allegedly said.
When he stains himself like a girl on her monthly period, when he makes some gesticulations like a girl, be very watchful.
The article concludes: “You won’t find the label ‘homosexual’ written on the faces, but when you see your boy dress mostly in pink, shave, shape and carve his eyebrows; when his walking gait changes; when his language changes; when he sits with one side of his buttocks, when he stains himself like a girl on her monthly period, when he makes some gesticulations like a girl, be very watchful.”
The horrifying article reflects the views of 98 per cent of Nigerians, who believe that homosexuality should not be accepted in society, but arrests and floggings are presumably fine.
