So S/He's Gay, What About It?
A young man was recently killed in Nigeria for being gay. His death was not quiet. It was not private. It was public, brutal, and—most disturbingly—celebrated. Men applauded. They cheered. They filmed. They shared the videos with captions dripping with righteousness, as if they had just rid society of a plague. And I want to ask a simple question: So he was gay. What about it? What about his sexuality warranted death? What about two consenting adults loving each other in private justifies mob violence? What about homosexuality is so threatening to our collective survival that we must hunt down and eliminate gay men and women? The answer, of course, is nothing. There is nothing about homosexuality that threatens Nigeria. But everything about our response to it reveals the rot at our core. Our obsession with policing other people’s sexuality exposes not moral clarity, but moral bankruptcy. It reveals our collective insecurity, our desperate need for scapegoats, and our willingness ...