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Rights activists form alliance against anti-gay marriage bill
01 June 2006- Nigeria- Human rights activists in the country
have formed an alliance against the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill
now in the National Assembly, saying it violates people's sexuality
rights
Rising from a two-day workshop on Wednesday in Abuja, the activists
pledged to use every constitutional means to stop the bill, which they
described as injurious to sexual minorities. They accused the sponsors
of the bill of being sentimental and insensitive to the sexuality rights
of a population.
Already,
International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights (INCRESE),
Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), Constitutional Rights
Project (CRP) and Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) have formed a
consortium to pursue the case.
The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that three other organisations National Human
Rights Commission, Alliance Rights and Global Rights also pledged their
commitment to the stoppage of the bill at the workshop.
The alliance is to,
among other things, ensure that a public hearing is held before the bill
is passed, to afford them the opportunity to contribute to its
provisions. They are also to sensitise members of the public on
sexuality rights as it affects everybody to elicit attitudinal change
toward them.
The Executive
Director of INCRESE, Miss Dorothy Aken'Ova, told NAN that sexual
minotiries in the country constituted a large and diverse population.
She said that given the right and safe atmosphere, a very large number
of women in the country would prefer same sex marriage because that was
the only way they achieved sexual satisfaction.
Aken'Ova said that
many women pretended to be in heterosexual marriages while keeping
lesbian partners to achieve their sexual satisfaction. She said that her
group had 53 registered lesbians from various parts of the country,
adding that many others identified with their activities but were not
courageous to register.
An official of Alliance Rights also said it had more than 2,000
registered homosexuals in the country.
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