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 Ani Kayode Somtochukwu and Victor Emmanuel. 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[lower-alpha 1] 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 Safe HQuse to support queer protestors and survivors.[3]

Personal life

Blaise is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns. As of October 2020,[4] they were attending Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo 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 The Initiative For Equal Rights' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year".[7]

In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by Dafe Oboro that accompanied the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed.[8] In November 2021, they were honoured with a "Generation Change Award" at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest.[9]

Notes

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 Greenfield, Rebecca (11 March 2021). "LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others". Bloomberg. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 C.J., Nelson (26 February 2021). "Queer Nigerians Find Both Community, Bigotry on Clubhouse". Time. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  3. 1 2 Smith, Reiss (21 October 2020). "End SARS: Queer Nigerians are being abused, humiliated and killed by a corrupt police unit – and it's nothing new". PinkNews. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  4. ↑ Blaise, Matthew (13 October 2020). "Queer Nigerians Are Being Beaten by SARS — I'm Trying to End That". Out. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Matthew (Blaise) Nwozaku". Women Deliver. 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Future Awards Africa: Class of 2020". The Future Awards Africa. 8 November 2020. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Obi-Young, Otosirieze (26 December 2020). "The 2020 Freedom Awards Honour LGBTQ & Feminist Advocates". Open Country Magazine. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  8. ↑ Dawson, Brit (3 June 2021). "Meet the resilient Nigerians leading the country's youth revolution". Dazed. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  9. ↑ Ramachandran, Naman (14 November 2021). "As MTV EMAs Go Ahead in Budapest Despite Anti-LGBTQ Laws, Hungarian Activist Award Winner Details 'Fear and Censorship'". Variety. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
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