Nigeria's gay activists are demanding that a proposed law, which would criminalize gay relationships as well as those who "aid and abet" them, be rescinded.
The group went to the national assembly on Wednesday to voice their disdain over the sweeping bill, which seeks to punish anyone who undergoes, "performs, witnesses, aids, or abets" a same-sex marriage ceremony with five years in prison, and would further define as a same-sex marriage any two gay people who live together, making them subject to three years in prison.
"I did not choose to be gay. It is trial enough to live in this country; we should not create more laws to make us suffer," Rashidi Williams, of the Queer Alliance of Nigeria, said to the assembly.
The law would also give police more authority to arrest suspects and investigate those who work for human rights groups that deal with gay issues.
Currently, consensual gay sex is banned in Nigeria.
Supporters of the bill, including many religious leaders, also appeared at the assembly on Wednesday to counter the gay rights activists. They brought a group of children wearing T-shirts reading "Same-sex marriage is unnatural and un-African" and "Same-sex marriage is an abomination."
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