Popular TV personality, Denrele Edun, and social media celebrity drag queen, James Obialor, popularly called James Brown, have been featured in an American documentary film, ‘The Legend of the Underground’, which promotes LGBTQ.

LGBTQ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning. These terms are used to describe a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

American cable television company, HBO, revealed on Thursday that the movie would premiere on June 29.
It said the movie showcase the discrimination faced by people living in Nigeria who are homosexual or who do not conform to societal expectations of gender identities.

According to HBO, “the documentary follows two tight-knit groups of chosen families: In New York, a man named Micheal Ighodaro lives with his friends who are part of the Nigerian diaspora and works to advocate for the people and communities he left behind in Nigeria after having been attacked for his identity.

“Meanwhile, in Nigeria, a circle of friends struggle with the option to either search for a safe haven abroad, or to stay and fight a system that seeks to silence them.”

In the trailer published by HBO on its Instagram page, the Police arrested James Brown and 46 others during a raid on a hotel in the Egbeda axis of Lagos State for publicly displaying affection with members of the same sex.
However, a judge of the Lagos State Federal High Court, who cited a lack of “diligent prosecution” by the Police, dismissed the case.

The movie is directed and produced by Nneka Onuorah and Giselle Bailey, respectively, while John Legend serves as the Executive Producer under his Get Lifted Film Company banner, alongside Mike Jackson, Ty Stiklorius, and Austyn Biggers.

The film is scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 10, 2021.
In 2013, Nigeria enacted the anti-LGBTQ law — the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill (SSMPA) ― which criminalised all forms of same-sex unions and same-sex marriage across the country.

The maximum punishment in the 12 northern states that have adopted Sharia law is death by stoning.

The law applies to all Muslims and to those who have voluntarily consented to the application of the Sharia courts.
In Southern Nigeria and under the secular criminal laws of northern Nigeria, the maximum punishment for same-sex sexual activity is 14 years’ imprisonment.