{"id":5151,"date":"2015-07-01T06:57:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T06:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=5151"},"modified":"2015-07-01T06:57:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T06:57:51","slug":"nigeria-poll-suggests-87-oppose-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2015\/07\/01\/nigeria-poll-suggests-87-oppose-gay-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria poll suggests 87% oppose gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A new opinion poll suggests that 87% of people in Nigeria support the legal ban on same-sex relations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That number is lower than five years ago, when 96% of Nigerians opposed relationships between same-sex couples.<\/p>\n<p>Gay rights activists, who commissioned the poll, said this showed attitudes towards gay people were changing, albeit slowly.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria is a deeply conservative country and religion plays a major role in society.<\/p>\n<p>The government tightened anti-gay laws last year, banning same-sex marriages, gay groups and shows of same-sex public affection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Progress&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Campaigners say the laws are among the most draconian anywhere &#8211; and impose a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for same-sex couples.<\/p>\n<p>About 1,000 people across Nigeria took part in the telephone poll which was commissioned by gay rights groups, including the Bisi Alimi Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Only about one in six people said they knew someone who was openly homosexual, reports the BBC&#8217;s Will Ross from Nigeria&#8217;s main city, Lagos.<\/p>\n<p>However, the number almost doubled for people in their late teens and early twenties.<\/p>\n<p>About 30% of respondents said gay, lesbian and bisexual people should have access to public services such as education and healthcare.<\/p>\n<p>Gay activists, including the Bisi Alimi Foundation, see this as progress, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n<p>They believe the survey shows that the tide is slowly turning towards acceptance. Nevertheless, Nigeria remains a dangerous place for people to come out, our correspondent adds.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new opinion poll suggests that 87% of people in Nigeria support the legal ban on same-sex relations. That number is lower than five years ago, when 96% of Nigerians opposed relationships between same-sex couples. Gay rights activists, who commissioned the poll, said this showed attitudes towards gay people were changing, albeit slowly. Nigeria is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}