Lgbt Organizing Strategies in Repressive Contexts: Nigeria after the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act

• In Event: 4360 - Mobilizing for and Against Violence in Pursuit of Social Justice

Abstract

Social movement organizations can often choose how to respond to hostile situations. In particular, they can confront their oppressors, retreat, or try to maintain the status quo. But what determines their course of action? To answer this question, we develop a model that draws from both field theory and social movement theory to describe how organizations’ positionality across a set of overlapping fields determined their use of visibility, invisibility, creativity, or resiliency strategies in response to increased hostility. We apply this model to the case of the aftermath of the passage of Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA). Ratified by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, the SSMPA extended sections of the Penal Code criminalizing same-sex sex. Notably, the law criminalized all kinds of same-sex relationships among lgbt Nigerians, including participation in gay-affiliated groups and organizations. It also facilitated a period of heightened state-sponsored violence and persecution of individuals and groups on the basis of gender and sexual identity. This paper examines how an array of organizations have strategically and differentially responded to the passage of SSMPA. These include Nigerian lgbt nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), other health and development NGOs, the Nigerian government, and international organizations. We find that despite increases in hostility, arrests, and harassment since 2014, efforts to support lgbt-identified populations continue and have adopted new forms.

Authors

• Nicole Angotti, American University

• Tara A. McKay, Vanderbilt University

• Rachel Sullivan Robinson, American University