Matthew Blaise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew Nwozaku Chukwudi Blaise[1] is a Nigerian queer rights activist.[2]

Activity[]

In March 2020, after the murder of a gay man in Nigeria, Blaise created a Twitter campaign with and . The three successfully made the hashtag "#EndHomophobiainNigeria" trend on Nigerian Twitter for multiple days.[2]

Having been detained and threatened by Special Anti-Robbery Squad officers for "perceived homosexuality", Blaise became active in the October 2020 End SARS protests, where they[a] were verbally assaulted for carrying a sign with the words "Queer Lives Matter".[3] They additionally organized a group of other queer people to attend the protests.[1]

After the 2020 Lekki shooting, Blaise started working with to support queer protestors and survivors.[3]

Personal life[]

Blaise is non-binary, and uses both they/them and he/him pronouns. As of October 2020,[4] they were attending in Nigeria, seeking a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies.[5]

Blaise became more outspoken about their sexuality on social media after they were punched and choked by a priest for being gay in 2019, and other people in the church did not intervene.[1]

Recognition[]

Blaise was a Women Deliver youth leader in 2020; they were 22 years old at the time.[5] Also in 2020, they were a winner of The Future Awards Africa "Prize for Leading Conversations",[6] and ' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year".[7] In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by that accompanied the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed.[8]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Blaise uses they/them and he/him pronouns. This article uses they/them pronouns for consistency.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Greenfield, Rebecca (March 11, 2021). "LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others". Bloomberg. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b C.J., Nelson (February 26, 2021). "Queer Nigerians Find Both Community, Bigotry on Clubhouse". Time. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Smith, Reiss (October 21, 2020). "End SARS: Queer Nigerians are being abused, humiliated and killed by a corrupt police unit – and it's nothing new". PinkNews. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  4. ^ Blaise, Matthew (October 13, 2020). "Queer Nigerians Are Being Beaten by SARS — I'm Trying to End That". Out. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Matthew (Blaise) Nwozaku". Women Deliver. 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  6. ^ "The Future Awards Africa: Class of 2020". The Future Awards Africa. November 8, 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  7. ^ Obi-Young, Otosirieze (December 26, 2020). "The 2020 Freedom Awards Honour LGBTQ & Feminist Advocates". . Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Dawson, Brit (June 3, 2021). "Meet the resilient Nigerians leading the country's youth revolution". Dazed. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
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