Chukwuemeka, meanwhile, claims he was once arrested after the girlfriend of a SARS officer, who happened to be his neighbor, reported his sexual orientation to the police. Chukwuemeka was locked up for five hours while authorities allegedly went through his phone searching for queer content. “They kept me in a cell just to go through my phone,” he says. “It was a traumatic experience.”
Officers also allegedly tried to extort money from him, but when they checked Chukwuemeka’s bank account, they found there was nothing in it. To punish him, they instead forced Chukwuemeka to vacate his apartment, he says, calling him a “disgrace to humanity.”
But Chukwuemeka’s experience at the #EndSARS protests indicates that queer people do not merely experience harassment and brutality at the hands of police. Amara, better known as Amara, The Lesbian, has been vlogging about the protests in Abuja on her YouTube channel and said she and her friends were verbally accosted for flying a rainbow flag. The men who reprimanded them allegedly tore their pro-LGBTQ+ posters and demanded that they leave the event.
Victor Emmanuel, an openly gay man and a rising YouTuber in Nigeria, shared an extremely similar account: He says queer people were mocked and taunted at the protests in Enugu in a bid to incite them to violence. On one occasion, they were asked to stop waving their protest signs, and when they refused, they, too were verbally attacked. Other protesters were said to have also told them that their “queer lives matter” chants were a distraction to the #EndSARS campaign.
Emmanuel disagrees. “I feel we should also have a voice to tell our own stories as related to brutality in the hands of SARS,” he tells them., adding that LGBTQ+ activists are being “oppressed in a fight against oppression.”
Due to the hostilities across the country, Blaise had to pull together resources to ensure that queer people are protected while they are out protesting. He and his team provided food, temporary shelter, medical care, and security through funds donated by members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies.
“The donations have been helpful,” he says. “Because of the discrimination, it became important to provide special funds that catered to the needs of queer people at the protests.”
At one of the very first protests, Blaise marched the streets of Lagos against the scorching sun in a crop top and tracksuit bottoms; while holding a hand fan and a water bottle, he chanted “queer lives matter” at the top of his voice, despite the blank stares from other protesters. A friend filmed him during the procession, and the video was uploaded to his Twitter account. It has since garnered more than three million views.
Blaise is heartened that his video encouraged other queer people to come out and amplify their voices in the fight against police brutality, but he says he doesn’t feel like he “championed” the movement. “I don’t feel like a champion at all,” he says. “Nigerian queer people are resilient, and I’ve learned to keep fighting with them.”
Blaise is not sure if the resilience shown by queer people at the protests, even in spite of the harassment they’ve faced, is an indication that they are ready to fight for the repeal of the country’s anti-gay laws. It’s also unclear whether that kind of reform is even possible under the current administration, which is hell-bent on stifling the activities of the press and free speech.
Blaise knows, though, that the #EndSARS protests have shown that “the youth are angry [and] queer people are angrier.” “I can’t predict if this anger is going to be used to fight the anti-gay laws,” Blaise says. “All I know is that we are experiencing a revolution — and queer people are not backing out.”
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