Gay Africans Seeking Asylum in Brooklyn

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Fayemi Shakur

For many Nigerian gays and lesbians living in New York, even those who have had their asylum request approved, there is still a very real fear of the impact that their sexual orientation becoming public will have on family members back home. Bloom Global Pride Party, Harlem. June 2014.

NEW YORK---Nigeria’s passage of a law criminalizing same-sex relationships drew immediate international outrage earlier this year. In New York, gay activists held protests outside the Nigerian government’s offices, something that amazed Rahima Gambo. With so much of life hidden in Nigeria, she said, nothing so bold would have happened there.That realization led Ms. Gambo, a Nigerian photographer raised in London, to explore the lives of the growing number of gay men who have fled to the United States seeking asylum and a chance to live freely. It was during the March protest in New York that she met Shaheed Ipadeola, a young man living in a Brooklyn home for asylum seekers. [link]