Gay South Africans attack Nigeria at CHAN over homosexuality ban

Published on: 22 January 2014

Soccer fans and LGBT supporters in Cape Town, South Africa, made a statement against Nigeria's recently passed antigay law when the South African team Bafana Bafana took on Nigeria's Super Eagles national football team in Cape Town on Sunday.

A "small but visible" contingent of demonstrators waved rainbow flags, and carried progay signs during the sold-out game in South Africa's Cape Town Stadium Sunday, reports Mamba Online.

"People were scattered all around the stadium,” demonstrator Alistair Mackay told MambaOnline. “We saw rainbow flags and even a rainbow umbrella…. While there weren’t enough of us to make a big impact in the stadium, we got into the news, which was perfect and what we wanted."

Photos of the demonstration even made the front page of South African daily newspaper Die Burger, with a headline which Mamba translated to read "Gay Laws Under Fire at Soccer in the Cape."

The activists, who organized and posted photos on social media, were protesting Nigeria's recent criminalization of homosexuality, which imposes 14-year prison sentences on anyone who marries a person of the same gender, and outlaws public or private gatherings of LGBT people making declarations of same-sex relationships. Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan signed the law on January 7, and at least 38 people have already been arrested — and some reportedly tortured — for being gay.

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