‘Pride Diaries’ a new podcast exploring the lives of gay Nigerians

Rainbow-colored hand print accompanies the “Pride Dairies” podcast episode about religion and sexuality.

Although Nigeria prohibits same-sex marriage and threatens same-gender-loving people with 14 years in prison, two courageous Nigerian queer women have launched “Pride Diaries,” a new podcast exploring issues that affect the lives of LGBT Nigerians.

The two anonymous Nigerians launched the podcast this past June during LGBT Pride month. In an online chat, one of them told NoStringsNG that the idea for the podcast was inspired by their own personal experiences as they talked casually about queer issues:

“I was sitting with a few queer friends one afternoon and we were talking about our relationships. Somehow the conversation went to how we discovered our queerness. Everyone had an interesting story and I just thought how could we share these stories. That’s how the podcast idea came. We wanted to tell people our stories, to let them know we are human too, with normal lives.”

The first episode, titled “Love is Love,” made its debut on June 27.

Image of a rainbow-colored fist accompanies the “Pride Dairies” podcast episode about homophobia.

Episodes of the podcast are put together using recorded voice-notes from participants who share their personal experiences on issues ranging from homophobia to coming out and from religion to sexuality.

Currently, the duo is accepting voice-notes for a new episode which will be released soon. Audio files can be sent to thepridediaries@gmail.com.

This is another opportunity for people to learn about what it truly means to be gay, countering the lies and sensationalism about homosexuality that often appears in mainstream media.

To listen to previous episodes of the “Pride Diaries” podcasts, visit https://soundcloud.com/thepridediaries or find them on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thepridediaries.