“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”
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I want to make a thread about the noises making round about @tbafoundations pride event in Lagos. With a story with this image(s)
It is important to know that before you join a bandwagon, you ask yourself questions. The easiest thing to do in life is to complain. We all have been there.
I want to make it very clear here that BAF was formed with the sole aim of accelerating social acceptance for #LGBT people in #Nigeria. As an org, we do not do support work for LGBT people. We are actually a policy, training and research org, than a community org
I know to a lot of Nigerians this approach is new, and even more so in the LGBT community. What this mean is, we don’t run a support group. We don’t provide any form of support targeted at the LGBT people.
Our work is focused on collecting data, interpretering them and also developing programs that will help answer the questions posed by the data. BAF is a researched based organistion.
So back to the image here and the pride debate. First I want to make very clear; yes @tbafoundations held a pride event in Lagos. So it is important we clear the air on that. Now the question remains if this was the first ever event labelled pride in Lagos.
Last year, my colleague: Rebecca Roberts (a straight woman) heard there was going to be a rally in Lagos again mass killing. She reached out and asked that we join. I was reluctant at first, but with much persistence, I agreed. We saw an opportunity to piggyback on the rally
Within days we make posters as you can see in this images. I came online asking for people to volunteer to help make up the numbers. Very few people showed up.
Not deterred by the number, we went ahead and joined the rally. It was scary but we had a presence. Questions were asked and many kicked against us joining but at the end we won.
I personally know what marching in Nigeria as a queer person is. I did it in 2005 on the street of Abuja and 2006 again in Abuja while challenging the SSMPA. So I do know what fear is.
While this act of bravery was carried by many international media, the Nigeria gay media ignored it. Many even accused us of antic to get money from donors; the same thing they are saying today.
I am a doer and not a talker. I know we have different talents. While others are gifted with the talent of bringing others and stopping them from doing what we need to do to liberate LGBT movement and individual in Nigeria. I am more focused on doing the undoable
However we all have a choice. You can either be proactive and bring about change or join a wagon of noise makers on social media and in your various coven and bring down those who are doing something. However, you can’t stop me. If that’s your plan, rethink your strategy.
I am not the Angelic Troublemaker for no reason. I am here to shake the system until it’s recognises my humanity and the humanity of many like me and it doesn’t matter if that includes the same people that think I am a fraud.
Once again, here is an evidence to show that @tbafoundations is working and working tirelessly to accelerate social acceptance of LGBT people in Nigeria and we will not be distracted
You can follow @bisialimi.
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