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Where Love Is Illegal || #queerphotography #portraitphotography #documentaryphotography #whereloveisillegal #robinhammond #bdc #bronxdocumentarycenter (at Bronx Documentary Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZzWmAgcHb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qzv6vh3zop1y
When Falling In Love Can Put Your Life In Danger
While photographer Robin Hammond was on assignment with National Geographic Magazine in Nigeria in 2014, he heard about five young men in Lagos who were arrested and facing the death penalty — just because they were gay.
A few days later, he tracked them down. By that time, the case had been dismissed, but the men had been ostracized by their families, were homeless and in hiding, and faced an uncertain future.
Hammond was deeply moved by their stories. He took their photos and asked them to write their own accounts of what had happened.
"Their personal testimonies connected me in a way that statistics or stories in newspapers couldn't," he says.
Hammond wanted to hear more stories. Over the next few months, he traveled to countries with anti-gay laws like Cameroon, South Africa and Uganda to interview and photograph people who'd been discriminated against for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Read the full story here.
@Robin Hammond / Witness Change
Nigeria, April 2014
A posed posed portrait of Buje (not his real name) who is gay. In December 2013 he was taken from his home by a vigilante group aligned to Bauchi City Sharia Courts who suspected him of being gay. They slapped him and beat him with electric cables. He was held in prison for over 40 days. He made several appearances at the Sharia Court. After being beaten in prison he confessed to committing homosexual acts. He was lashed 15 times with a horse whip as a punishment. Sodomy is punishable by death under Sharia Law but requires four witnesses. Since Nigeria’s president signed a harsh law criminalizing homosexuality throughout the country, arrests of gay people have multiplied, advocates have been forced to go underground, some people fearful of the law have sought asylum overseas and news media demands for a crackdown have flourished.
From: ROBIN HAMMOND ON CREATING A WORLD WHERE LOVE IS NEVER ILLEGAL
"Despite the blatant homophobia and discrimination on the part of the Russian government, us, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender, have no need to hide, have no need to be afraid, but on the contrary - we need to face the future, if so, it can't be anything other than bright and cheery. Everything is in our hands.”
Grisha is a #gay man and #LGBT activist from #Russia. He lost his job as a teacher because of his #activism and his #sexuality. He now works as a #dragqueen.
You can read Grisha's story, shared for the #WhereLoveIsIllegal campaign, a platform for #LGBT stories of survival here: http://bit.ly/1TNco29 At the link you can also see how to share your own experience.
Photo by Robin Hammond. This is a Witness Change project. Follow Where Love Is Illegal to see more stories of survival.
