Gay rights activist wants Nollywood to portray homosexuals accurately

chibumga izuzu

September 13, 2017 4:29 PM

Bisi Alimi also believes that it is time for Nigerian homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people to come out and tell their own stories.

Alimi addressed this during an interview with Pulse Nigeria.

"We all don't catwalk, we don't call ourselves wives. It's this kind of caricature that is very problematic because the power of film and television is huge," Said Alimi on the portrayal of homosexuals in Nollywood.

"And people see things, it stays in their memory. They go out and expect that thing to be the way they have seen it, the way it has been sold to them."

He makes reference to a recent Nollywood movie featuring Kate Henshaw and Liz Benson, which according to him, treated lesbianism as a demon that infects people.

"I mean if that's the point and we were that powerful to be infecting people, we would have infected everybody in Nigeria with the level of hate we get. But that's not how things work," he said.

Apart from Nollywood writers carrying out their research on homosexuality, Bisi Alimi believes that it is time for homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders to come out and tell their own stories.

"Film has a huge part and I also hope that the community starts tapping into how we also tell our stories because it is not just going to happen," he says.

"We have to take the lead as well and say how do we release our own movies that actually talk about our own story", but I hope it gets through the film censors board" he adds.

In recent times, Nollywood has made movies like "Hell or High Water"and "Everything in Between,"aimed at moving the LGBT conversation forward in Nigeria.

Alimi became popular in 2004 as the first Nigerian gay man to appear on Nigerian national television as a guest on Funmi Iyanda's show, "New Dawn with Funmi."

Alimi got married on November 5, 2016, to his lover Anthony in the UK.

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