Bisi Alimi returned to Nigeria for the first-ever LGBT pride event he organized in Lagos.
The gay rights activist attended the Night of Diversity 2019 organized by the Bisi Alimi Foundation. The event held in Lagos on Tuesday, October 29.
The event was made possible courtesy of grants received from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Martin Prendergast, Stephen Fry and Paul Gambaccini.
The British Deputy High Commission also provided the venue for the event.
The Night of Diversity 2019 saw nine members of the LGBT community take the stage to show off their talents and capabilities.
Giving his followers an update on the event, Bisi wrote:
WE DID IT! We organised an LGBT pride event in Lagos
————————————————————-Last night was a blast in Lagos, 9 LGBT took to stage for what was an incredible showing of rainbow awesomeness.
The celebs and stars also came. It was a great night.
Thank you to everyone that showed up.
We never thought that when we decided to organise something close to an LGBT pride event in Lagos that we will;
1- find a venue
2- find sponsorships for it
3- find artists
4- that people will comeDespite the crazy traffic in Lagos yesterday, great number of people turned up.
We found a venue, 9 acts performed at the event and we got grants from Elton John AIDS Foundation, Martin Prendergast, Stephen Fry and Paul Gambaccini
The British Deputy High Commission provide an amazing venue.
See you at the Diversity Night in 2020
It was gathered that the event was made possible in partnership with the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Alimi gained notoriety in 2004 when he became the first Nigerian gay man to appear on Nigerian national television as a guest on Funmi Iyanda’s show New Dawn with Funmi, a talk show on the NTA. He was forced to flee Nigeria in 2007 following threats to his life. He was granted asylum in 2009 by the UK where he has been resident since.
The Nigerian LGBT community has been a target for discrimination, hostility and rejection. This intensified with the criminalisation of sexual relationships between people of the same sex in January 2014.
The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) was signed into law in 2014 by former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was enacted on the premise that the Nigerian culture is antithetical to homosexuality.
