Gay Marriage Extremely Popular In the Nigerian Community Abroad

According to investigations carried out by Grapevine Reports, the institution of gay marriage is a popular phenomenon among the immigrant Nigerian community in America. Since the Supreme Court validation of the act of congress passed by majority of liberal legislators before the close of the last congressional session, millions of Nigerian applications have since flooded court registries across the major cities of United States to get married to their same sex partners.

Prior to the Supreme Court Ruling, the highly skilled and highly educated Nigerian population has been lost to the more gay friendly Canada. This in turn has been adversely affecting the abilities of vital industries like nursing to fill important positions and vacancies. Nigerians being reputable for their contributions to these industries have found more benign atmosphere for their partners in neighboring Canada.

Outlining the recent trend is a study from the liberal think tank; Advocates of America that showed that the rate of domestic partnership of same sex couples among the immigrant Nigerian population is up 80% from the pre-supreme court ruling period. In fact, there is a possibility that in the next couple of years the number of same sex married couples of Nigerian origin in United States could equal or even outnumber their heterosexual counterparts.

When our reporter pored through the data, the most intriguing trend in these partnerships is the number of coupling between new arrivals and already settled immigrants from Nigeria. In fact, ninety nine out of hundred of these unions are between the so called JJC immigrants (as new arrivals are popularly known in the community) and the older heads. According to famous world renowned sociologist and Nigerian intellectual, Professor Sabella Abidde of Howard University, this trend could underline an emerging adjustment behavior in the community to living in a foreign land. In his own words, “every culture has unique ways of dealing with the loneliness and abandonment of their native land. The emerging trend of same sex partnership among immigrant Nigerians for example is not any different from the adoption of younger asian women by older madams in various massage parlors frequented by men of voracious appetite across America”.

Another intellectual and outspoken commentator on issues affecting Nigerians resident abroad, Dr. Nwuche Orah of Liverpool University, New York however sees this from another point of view. In his postulation, the vehement homophobic environment in Nigeria could be held accountable for leading to the brain drain trend that have led the exodus of Nigeria’s best to foreign land more accepting of their sexual orientation. He believes the recent statistics that show that eighty percent of these new arrivals getting married had indeed in the six months preceding their marriages applied for one form of asylum or another is mostly related to their prosecution at their home countries based on their sexual orientation. Nigeria is a country well known for having legion of critics of the emerging alternative lifestyle chief among them being under cover homosexuals themselves- including former Heads of State and their Chief House Boys in Aso rock (one a failed governor aspirant from the East).

Our agency contacted a gay partnership advocacy group, promoting the right of gay parents to adopt, United Front for the Family; the groups spokesperson was more than happy to help us sieve through the various data on this trend in the Nigerian community in America. Ms. Tracy Calloway was of the view that these partnerships have proven to be good for the family and right for the community. According to her, “a vast majority of settled immigrants, not only obtain legal residency for their partners but also adopt their children and relatives from Nigeria. This essentially transplants whole communities and enriches the culture and economy of the United States in the process”.

She went further to point out the unique cultural adaptation of the traditional gay partnership model to the Nigerian culture of family. In her own words, “ninety percent of the Nigerian-American couples in same sex partnership have been found to live in separate addresses, but with each sharing custody of their children and keeping an opposite gendered partner in their respective homes for the all rounded mental development of their children recognizing that there might be truly great advantages for children to grow up in two parent home devoid of the confusions of two mothers or two fathers”.

The Rainbow Push Coalition, a bisexual relations lobby in Washington, however sees this feature as more of a naturalization of the Nigerian culture to accepting that couples don’t necessarily have to choose to date one gender but can freely decide to swing both ways; being in partnership with both genders the same time. Alicia Feyinsola, the group’s secretary points out that this might be transferred characteristics from the well grounded culture of polygamy very strong and present in ancient and modern Nigerian societies alike.

Regardless of the explanation proffered by the experts, inbred, or outsourced, one thing that is abundantly clear is that this is a trend that has come to stay. Gay marriage or domestic same sex partnership is alive and well in the 21^st century Nigerian community in America for the benefit of their loved ones- at home and abroad. Hence, for any single presidential candidate to carry the pink states of Maryland (including neighboring Washington DC), Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Massachusetts, states with significant Nigerian population and electoral votes, a strong support for domestic partnership and rights of couples in domestic partnership to be treated equally as their heterosexual counterparts will be indispensable in capturing the votes that will catapult him/her/himer* to the White House. Most especially, fast tracking the process of obtaining green card by marriage is going to give any candidate a significant advantage over the others: over to you Senator Chelsea Clinton-Bush.

Culled from US National Times of April, 19 2066

*Himer is a pronoun for the double gendered or transgender population.