Rainbow Alliance Nigeria is a community-based network of LGBT people in Abia State, Nigeria.
Violence, discrimination, and human rights violations seem to be the order of the day for the Nigerian LGBT community. Nigeria criminalizes same-sex sexual activities, with punishment of up to 14 years in jail.
The situation became even worse when the president signed the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act into law in 2014. This law even forbids visiting gay clubs, punishable with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. Under these circumstances, it’s difficult for the LGBT community to live a normal life.
Some of the landlords cited fears of harassment by law enforcement agencies, and or confiscation of their properties by the Government if the authorities were to learn that their properties were being used as a safehouse for LGBT people, while some declined engagement with us on “religious/moral grounds”, and of the 11 landlords that declined communicating further with us, 3 threatened to report us to the authorities if we were to contact them or communicate with them again for that purpose.
However, our queer community always tries to help each other out. So does Rainbow Alliance Nigeria. Our funding enables them to open an emergency shelter for banished young LGBT people from communities and villages across Abia State.
Finding a house was difficult. Some landlords even threatened to report them to the authorities if they contacted them again. But as the old saying goes: for he whose strivings never cease will finally achieve success. So, after a long struggle they finally found a landlord willing to rent them a house. Time to decorate!
