CHANGING ATTITUDE NIGERIA NEWS

Church of Nigeria bussed people in to the Same Gender Marriage Bill hearing

Friday, 13 March 2009

The second Changing Attitude Nigeria leader who was present at the hearing on Wednesday has now posted his report. I am struck by the extent to which the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) had organised people to attend the hearing, bussing them in from as far away as Jos and having T-shirts printed. Here is his report:

On Wednesday, while we were outside waiting to be allowed to enter, some interesting things began to happen. Buses began to arrive carrying members of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and the Joint Women’s Fellowship  together with the Youth Fellowship buses from Jos. They parked right next to us.

The atmosphere became very tense for us lesbian and gay representatives. The church members looked at us with terrible hard faces. They were wearing T-shirts with the slogans saying: IT IS UNAFRICAN, IT IS UNGODLY, IT IS SENSELESS, UNCULTURAL. 

After that we were allowed to go in. I received a call from Colin which really did a great work in me, because it gave me a lot of courage.

The hearing which was scheduled to start at 10am finally started at 12noon with the introduction of Members of the House and views from different departments who said they will stand by the House on any decision being taken by them.

The first statement was read by Rashidi Williams of the Queer Alliance of those who are against the Bill. He said that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are created By God and made in his image. The statement was not accepted by the clergymen present.

After which a Bishop said that clearly it was a big lie for any gay person to say that he was created by God. He also said from his statement that being gay was an acquired syndrome from the western world.

Another statement made by a priest from the Catholic Church. He said that being gay was a wired way of life affecting society negatively. He said that people travelled out of the country and brought back different, western views.

A testimony from the fellowship of Christian Patriots was focussed on two view points. From the God perspective, he said homosexuality was a way of excluding God from our lives. From the anthropological perspective he said that it was a way of satisfying our canal desires.

Many words that made me feel so bad were said. The worst was from a member of the House, the Hon. Dino. He said it was a sin, demonic and from hell. He also said that it was his personal view that he wishes us death by hanging.

After hearing all this, I came to the conclusion that most people in Nigeria need to be enlightened. They are so backward that it will take God's grace for them to be educated on the issue of homosexuality.

There were just a very few people who said some reasonable things. One of the House Representatives said that he will vote for the bill, but he carried some reservations. He had two questions which he said he would like the House to look into.

Firstly, is being gay a biological and natural thing? If it is, then the House needs to look for ways in which they can handle the issue differently.

Secondly, he said that if it is psychological or a sickness that needs treatment, then they need to know how to handle it, but in that case, they need an answer from a doctor.

In response the Director of Igno Increase rose to respond. She said that she has a child who is deformed. The child was created by God and she has no reason to question God’s wisdom in creating her child. The same case applies here, that homosexuality is natural and not a sickness.

What I saw in the hearing was that a lot of enlightenment needs to be done by we who are gay and lesbian. Most of the LGBT submissions were based on the rights of gay people. There was very little testimony about the reality of being gay in Nigeria. Those members of the House who said they will vote for the bill did so because they were following the herd and fearful of expressing an independent thought.

We need to present them with more evidence and information about the reality of LGBT people in Nigeria. Changing Attitude is out to change the attitude of these people and we will do it.

Uche

Telephone 01380 724908
E-mail office@changingattitude.org

This page was last updated on Monday, 18 August 2008