Proposed Nigerian Law Would Criminalize Gay Rights Groups, Screenings of Brokeback Mountain

^{Category: Gender and Sexuality | International Human Rights}

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With a federal law on the books that mandates a 14-year prison sentence for gay sex, and Islamic regional courts' habit of threatening same-sex couples with death by stoning, Nigeria is in no danger of becoming known as the gay rights capital of the world. But one new piece of legislation would take matters even further (bolded text mine):

[O]n January 19, 2006, Mr. Bayo Ojo, Minister of Justice, presented to the Federal Executive Council a "Bill for an Act to Make Provisions for the Prohibition of Relationship Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith". While the Council reportedly approved the Bill, it has not yet been submitted to the National Assembly ...

[I]n its article 7 (1), the Bill prohibits the "registration of gay clubs, societies and organisations by whatever name they are called [...] by government agencies."

Furthermore, the Bill provides in its article 7(3) five years imprisonment for "any person involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organisations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private." It also provides the same sentence to anyone who "goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex, and "performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same sex marriage" (article 8).

Critics charge that the bill violates multiple human rights treaties to which the Nigerian government is party, and would impede educational efforts to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS. Despite these obvious problems, the bill has received almost unanimous endorsement from Nigeria's most powerful religious authorities--including the Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the country's largest Christian denomination, who argues that the bill reflects "the moral position of Nigerians regarding human sexuality." Akinola's position received unlikely U.S. support from the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Episcopal Bishop of Pittsburgh, who wrote in a press release dated March 15th, 2006:

It is jarring, to say the least, to see church leaders, who claim to champion the primacy of local understanding and culture, demanding that foreign sister churches give up their own local understanding and culture and be judged by an American understanding of individual rights. There is a word for the one-way imposition of values – colonialism.

Duncan and Akinola have worked closely together in their attempts to punish the Episcopal Church (which shares Anglican Communion membership with the Anglican Church of Nigeria) for its decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop in 2003.

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See also:

• The Top 10 Blogs on Transgender, Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay Rights
• Iraq: Badr Organization Targeting Gays for Murder
• Canada: New Prime Minister Wants Parliament to Reconsider Gay Marriage