Nigeria has just passed a vicious anti-gay bill. It not only forbids gay marriage, it criminalizes organizing or lobbying to allow gay marriage, helping gays marry, having a gay club, and public demonstrations of affection by couples in public.
Lawmakers in Nigeria passed a bill Thursday banning gay marriage and outlawing anyone from forming organizations supporting gay rights, setting prison terms of up to 14 years for offenders.
…
Nigeria’s Senate previously passed the bill in November 2011 and the measure quietly disappeared for some time before coming up in Thursday’s session of the House. Under previous versions of the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
Other additions to the bill include making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, as well as criminalizing the "public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly." Those who violate those laws would face 10-year imprisonment as well.
I helped gay couples marry by voting in the last state election; I guess that makes me a criminal by Nigerian law, liable to a ten year prison sentence.
Which brings me to a tiny bit of happy news, at least: as of next Thursday, gay residents of the Twin Cities will be able to purchase marriage licenses. Maybe we should invite unhappy Nigerians to move here? Do it quick before your government decides to criminalize visiting more liberal countries!
Ugh, this is so depressing and horrible. Inviting unhappy Nigerians to move is a funny idea at first glance, but seriously. People should be able to live in their own country and not be thrown in prison for kissing the wrong person. KISSING! FUCK! *rabblerabblerabble*
The northern part of Nigeria is also being subjected to Sharia law because of the Muslim population there, which discriminates not only against gays, but against women and other non-Muslims.
Damn religious bigotry, everywhere!
The whole thing is disgusting. I agree with Sally Strange.
Ugh. Those two lesbian women better not even talk to each other in public, lest they indirectly show they are in a relationship.
Ugh.. horrible.
I bet Yemmy has some choice words on this subject. Look forward to seeing what she has to say. In a sad, cynical kind of way.
Sounds like the christian taliban’s idea of a dream state. Perhaps they should be moving there since their god will be destroying us real soon now.
We should look into how many right-wing religious nutters here in the USA promoted this legislation.
*rageflail*
Probably all that have ever heard of Nigeria.
On the upside, they seem to have eliminated the death penalties that were a part of earlier versions of this law. That’s progress of a sort, I suppose.
Oops, my bad: the “kill the gays” bill was in Uganda, not Nigeria.
Are there a lot of Nigerians in Minnesota? There are quite a few here in SE TX because of connections to the oil bidness. They’re pretty cool and have some great restaurants. Y’all should get some up there. Don’t know if they’d be able to handle the winter though.
@ Lynna OM
The “C Street House” was the inspiration behind the “kill the gays” law in Uganda. From what I’ve read Nigeria has plenty of viciously insane religious nutters of its own.
As much as a non-sequitor as this may sound, this is a great argument for energy conservation. According to a report about this in the Toronto Star, European countries were able to compel Uganda to cool it with threats of economic sanctions. But Nigeria is a leading oil producer and therefore not dependent on foreign aid to the same extent. just a thought.
How many American legislators are salivating at the prospect of passing just such laws?
do all societies have to go through these kinds of purges before they can begin to be a modern enlightened………
I give up I can not finish that thought all I can think is we and they have not had enough carnage yet!
uncle frogy
It’s possible that it even forbids cohabitation. Look at how they define “civil union”:
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2013/05/30/56225
“Civil Union means any arrangement between persons of the same sex to live together as sex partners, and shall include such descriptions as adult independent relationships, caring partnerships, civil partnerships, civil solidarity pacts, domestic partnerships, reciprocal beneficiary relationships, registered partnerships, significant relationships, stable unions, etc.”
This goes far, far beyond any kind of formal, legalized union.
This is what hate gets you? Oh, no, PZed, you misunderstand. This is an expression of god’s love, no hate involved. And if the evil sinners won’t accept the brutal and capricious nature of god’s love, then the willful sinners will spend all eternity in a burning lake of god’s love because that is how god shows his love.[/obviously deeply sarcastic (I hope)]
Yeah, this is exactly the kind of law that the social and cultural fundamentalists would love to enact in the US. And they would also love to do the same for atheists, government employees, union members, women who show they can think, . . . .
“before your government decides to criminalize visiting more liberal countries”
They’d pretty much have to close the borders entirely, no?
Back in the ’70s when I was living alone I took in a male lodger. Looks like we’d both have been up for 10 years prison in Nigeria. Lucky as we are to be living in more civilised countries (previously UK and now Australia in my case) it’s still scary to know that there are people of a similar mindset to these Nigerian lawmakers in our midst.
Actually, the US does admit refugees who have been persecuted due to actual or perceived LGBTI status. So you already “invite unhappy” victims of this to move to the US. I think it is a pretty good program, but as I work in the program, I may be a bit biased.
That said, it seriously sucks that Nigeria has put this into law. I would rather be unemployed than live in a world where my job exists.
Ah, but did they remember to make it illegal to lobby to allow people to lobby to allow gay marriage?
When will the British government grow a spine and expel these gobshite countries from the Commonwealth?
Perhaps they are waiting until they are out of the EU (good riddance) and part of the USA.
@Don Quijote #20:
The British government can’t expel a country from the Commonwealth; it requires a majority vote of all Commonwealth countries.
You seem to be hankering for the days of Empire.
Just shows how fucked up and worthless the BRITISH Commonwealth is.
I’m hankering for the days of freedom and equality.
@Don Quixote, actually, most of the mess in Africa, especially due to the more regressive religious attitudes, is directly a result of colonial rule and our penchant for exporting Xianity through our missionaries. Previous to colonial rule, many African tribes, especially if they hadn’t yet been poisoned by the ‘people of the book’, regarded homosexuality as just another aspect of being human. Some tribes even accorded them special status as a sort of honorary woman with no stigma attached. We also didn’t bring them a great deal of freedom, just exploitation and something not a lot different to outright slavery in many places.