Matthew Blaise
Matthew Nwozaku Chukwudi Blaise[1] is a Nigerian queer rights activist and founder of Obodo Nigeria[2][3][1]
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".[4] 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.[4] In July 2022, Blaise came under fire on Twitter for allegedly misappropriating money donated to him by other charities.[5]
Personal life
Blaise is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns. As of October 2020,[update][6] they were attending Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo in Nigeria, seeking a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies.[7]
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.[7] Also in 2020, they were a winner of The Future Awards Africa "Prize for Leading Conversations",[8] and The Initiative For Equal Rights' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year".[9]
In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by Dafe Oboro that accompanied the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed.[10] In November 2021, they were honoured with a "Generation Change Award" at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest.[11][12]
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Greenfield, Rebecca (March 11, 2021). "LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 C.J., Nelson (February 26, 2021). "Queer Nigerians Find Both Community, Bigotry on Clubhouse". Time. Archived from the original on 15 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ "Obodo". Obodo. Retrieved 2025-05-25.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Smith, Reiss (2020-10-21). "End SARS: Queer Nigerians are being abused, humiliated and killed by a corrupt police unit – and it's nothing new". PinkNews. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ Matthew Blaise Twitter post July 9, 2022. Twitter. Retrieved on October 23, 2024
- ↑ Blaise, Matthew (2020-10-13). "Queer Nigerians Are Being Beaten by SARS — I'm Trying to End That". Out. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Matthew (Blaise) Nwozaku". Women Deliver. 2020. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ "The Future Awards Africa: Class of 2020". The Future Awards Africa. 2020-11-08. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-06. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Obi-Young, Otosirieze (2020-12-26). "The 2020 Freedom Awards Honour LGBTQ & Feminist Advocates". Open Country Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ Dawson, Brit (2021-06-03). "Meet the resilient Nigerians leading the country's youth revolution". Dazed. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
- ↑ Ramachandran, Naman (2021-11-14). "As MTV EMAs Go Ahead in Budapest Despite Anti-LGBTQ Laws, Hungarian Activist Award Winner Details 'Fear and Censorship'". Variety. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
- ↑ Times, The Rustin (2021-11-13). "Matthew Blaise among honorees for the 2021 MTV EMA Generation Change Award". The Rustin Times. Retrieved 2025-06-04.
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