By Davis Mac-Iyalla

Last year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit several Prides in the US; The first ones I had ever been to. It was a revelation to me. I was overwhelmed by the sense of freedom among such huge crowds of people, and the  sense of security people had in their sense of identity about who they were. Until I had seen such a situation with my own eyes and experienced the feeling of the crowd I could not quite really believe it was some how completely true. 

Sometimes our imaginations are not enough to get a clear idea of the goal when we are fighting for something that deep down we believe is a just situation - sometimes even a brief experience of is the only way to really crystallise and get clear in our minds exactly what we are fighting for.

As the leader of Changing Attitude Nigeria, the Nigerian branch of the Anglican pressure group campaigning for full inclusion of LGBT people in the Anglican Communion, I was in the US primarily to attend a conference. After Pride, back in my hotel room when I thought of the contrast with the situation facing gay people back home in Nigeria, I cried. Would such athing ever be possible in my own country, in my lifetime?

What I had just experienced highlighted to me just how far away many countries in Africa are from those basic human freedoms to be who you are. Those who have followed the international battle for gay rights may have known that in 2006 after the first public meeting for gay Christians in Nigeria, the atmosphere became much more openly hostile against gay people. It seems that the further forward the freedoms that LGBT people have won in the west, the further backwards Africa has become. Only South Africa is the notable exception, and there it is apparent that, whereas in many countries often the public attitude is ahead of the law, in South Africa the law is ahead of the public attitude - there is still a lot of public hostility to LGBT people, especially the further away from large cities you go.

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