Draft:Matthew blaise
Matthew Nwozaku Chukwudi Blaise [ 1 ] is a Nigerian Human rights and advocacy activist for LGBTQ+ rights activist [1] MTV EMAs Award Winner ‘21| The Future Award Africa Nominee ‘20| SOGIESC Activist of the Year ‘20| Educator|Curator
In March 2020, following the killing of a gay man in Nigeria, Blaise created a Twitter campaign with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu and Victor Emmanuel. The three were successful in creating the hashtag "#EndHomophobiainNigeria" on Nigerian Twitter for several days.
After being arrested and threatened by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad for "homosexuality " , Blaise became active in the October 2020 End SARS protests, where they were attacked for carrying signs that read "Queer Lives Matter". [ 2 ] They also supported other groups protesting. [ 1 ]
After the 2020 Lekki shooting, Blaise began working with Safe HQuse to support protesters and survivors. [ 2 ]
Personal life Blaise is not present, but he uses the pronoun ha/ha. By October, they were attending Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo in Nigeria , studying for a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Blaise came to terms with the fact that they openly discussed their sexuality on social media after a priest punched and kicked them for being gay in 2019, without anyone else in the church intervening. [ 1 ]
Knowledge Blaise was the 2020 Youth Leader of Women Deliver; they were 22 years old at the time. [ 4 ] Also in 2020, they were the winners of The Future Awards Africa's "Prize for Leading Conversations", and The Initiative for Equal Rights' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year". [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by Dafe Oboro which was part of the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed . [ 7 ] In November 2021, they were presented with the "Generation Change Award" at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest. [ 8 ]
Notes
Edensbury
Greenfield (March 11, 2021). LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others . Bloomberg . Retrieved on 2021-06-06. Smith (2020-10-21). End SARS: Queer Nigerians are being abused, humiliated and killed by a corrupt police unit - and it's nothing new (en-GB) . PinkNews . Retrieved on 2021-06-06. Blaise (2020-10-13). Queer Nigerians Are Being Beaten by SARS — I'm Trying to End That (en) . Out . Retrieved on 2021-06-06. Matthew (Blaise) Nwozaku (en-US) . Women Deliver (2020). Retrieved on 2021-06-06.
The Future Awards Africa: Class of 2020 (en-GB) . The Future Awards Africa (2020-11-08). Archived from the original on 2021-10-24. Retrieved on 2021-06-06.
Obi-Young (2020-12-26). The 2020 Freedom Awards Honor LGBTQ & Feminist Advocates (en-US) . Open Country Magazine . Retrieved on 2021-06-06. Dawson (2021-06-03). Meet the resilient Nigerians leading the country's youth revolution (en) . Dazed . Retrieved on 2021-06-06. Ramachandran. " As MTV EMAs Go Ahead in Budapest Despite Anti-LGBTQ Laws, Hungarian Activist Award Winner Details 'Fear and Censorship' ", Variety , 2021-11-14. Retrieved on 2021-11-15.