The House of Rainbow is Nigeria’s first LGBT church and was founded by gay pastor the Rev Jide Macaulay. However his father who also ordained him is founder of the Bible University and President of the Nigeria Association of Christian Theologians and one of the main supporters of the proposed Same Sex Marriage Law that will criminalise the Nigerian LGBTI community and anyone who supports or advocates on their behalf.
Rev Jide has not only had to face the homophobic wrath of his father by coming out as a gay man and opening his ministry to the LGBT community, his own 14 year old son has disowned him as has the rest of his family and many in his community.
Many Nigerians say they would disown a gay child. But Prof. Macaulay, who comes from a family so prominent that a street in Lagos is named after one of his uncles, tries to take a love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin approach. In a letter to his son shortly after discovering his son’s homosexuality, he wrote, “People in Nigeria here love you and rate you high in their lives.” But in that same letter he warned that his son’s homosexuality “is not only ABOMINABLE but a great DISGRACE to our family.”
To the extent that his son’s church affirms homosexuality, it is “of Satan,” the father says.
So, despite protests from his wife, Prof. Macaulay supports the anti-gay legislation. He says he “won’t feel very bad” if his son winds up in prison, which he even sees as a possible means of turning his son straight.
The conflict between the older and younger Macaulay is a mirror of the conflict between many families and within the society as a whole. More and more Nigerians are coming out which is one of the reasons why the bill is moving closer to being legislated as the Christian and Muslim communities stand in opposition to human rights, the right to define and live our own sexualities.
