Matthew Blaise

Matthew Nwozaku Chukwudi Blaise[1] is a Nigerian queer rights activist.[2]

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".[3] 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.[3]

Personal life

Blaise is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns. As of October 2020,[4] they were attending Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo in Nigeria, seeking a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies.[5]

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.[5] Also in 2020, they were a winner of The Future Awards Africa "Prize for Leading Conversations",[6] and The Initiative for Equal Rights' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year".[7]

In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by Dafe Oboro that accompanied the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed.[8] In November 2021, they were honoured with a "Generation Change Award" at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest.[9]

Notes
  1. Blaise uses they/them and he/him pronouns. This article uses they/them pronouns for consistency.

References
  1. Greenfield, Rebecca (March 11, 2021). "LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others". Bloomberg. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  2. C.J., Nelson (February 26, 2021). "Queer Nigerians Find Both Community, Bigotry on Clubhouse". Time. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  3. Smith, Reiss (October 21, 2020). "End SARS: Queer Nigerians are being abused, humiliated and killed by a corrupt police unit – and it's nothing new". PinkNews. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  4. Blaise, Matthew (October 13, 2020). "Queer Nigerians Are Being Beaten by SARS — I'm Trying to End That". Out. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  5. "Matthew (Blaise) Nwozaku". Women Deliver. 2020. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  6. "The Future Awards Africa: Class of 2020". The Future Awards Africa. November 8, 2020. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  7. Obi-Young, Otosirieze (December 26, 2020). "The 2020 Freedom Awards Honour LGBTQ & Feminist Advocates". Open Country Magazine. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  8. Dawson, Brit (June 3, 2021). "Meet the resilient Nigerians leading the country's youth revolution". Dazed. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  9. Ramachandran, Naman (November 14, 2021). "As MTV EMAs Go Ahead in Budapest Despite Anti-LGBTQ Laws, Hungarian Activist Award Winner Details 'Fear and Censorship'". Variety. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
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