- Trans history in Nigeria — We speak to the Reverend Jide Macaulay

Trans history in Nigeria — We speak to the Reverend Jide Macaulay

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Trans and Intersex History Africa (TIHA) brings you this conversation about the role Reverend Jide Macauley and his organisation, House of Rainbow, played in trans history in Nigeria. Victor Mukasa speaks to the “Happy, Holy Homosexual” about this and much more. This video is part of a series in which Victor reflects with activists on pivotal historical moments that forms part of the collective histories about the trans and intersex movements in Africa. Victor is also the founder of ‘The Victor Mukasa Show’. The conversation started off by reflecting on why Rev. Jide Macaulay called himself the Happy Holy Homosexual (H.H.H). The founding of the House of Rainbow stemmed from Jide’s personal journey, as he tried to reconcile his faith and sexuality. Jide spoke about how The House of Rainbow is a safe space for the Key Population, sex workers, people living with HIV (PLHIV), Men who have sex with men (MSM), trans community, intersex community, people who use drugs, people who found themselves in prison. House of Rainbow has been going on for 18 years and has relationships in 22 countries. The House of Rainbow is not only a space for worship, but also supports other issues, for example migrants in the UK, Global support work for Black LGBTIQ+ people living with HIV, workshops, education and much more. The discussion moved then to 2007, reflecting on a memorable moment for House of Rainbow: being part of the Trans and Intersex History in Africa (TIHA) Timeline. Both Liesl Theron from Gender DynamiX and Jide attended a conference in Johannesburg, hosted by ILGA World. One of the main reasons of the conference was to establish the Pan African ILGA (PAI), July 2007. Jide went ahead and relayed the story how he and some of the church congregation members (1 trans member worked in the Navy and wore uniform when they came to pick Liesl up from the accommodation in Lagos). The crux of the day was to be introduced to each other, to meet the trans congregation members, there was about 7 – 9 precent that day, which ended up being a knowledge exchange day. Jide explained the context of during those early years (circa 2007) that there was a lot of confusion because of pronouns, anxiety, pathways to transition and as he calls it heteronormative trouble – that gets into the mix. After this story, Victor went ahead and asked Rev. Jide to talk about the conditions that trans people had to live under, in the early and mid-2000s in Nigeria, and also, to talk about how it came that House of Rainbow (as a LGBTIQ+ organisation) supported trans issues so strongly – in a time period when most LGBT organisations only added the “T” in a symbolic manner. Jide explained that trans people are always very visible, and on the forefront and by default many times the target of hatred. Discover more about the Happy Holy Homosexual aka Reverend Jide Macaulay, the House of Rainbow and his journey and support to the trans community in Nigeria, Africa and Globally since 2006. About the Trans and Intersex History Africa website: The Trans & Intersex History website (TIHA) document events and important moments in a visual timeline as experienced and remembered by activists on the African Continent and within the African Diaspora.One of the main reasons behind the creation of this website was our passionate refusal to let the histories of the trans and intersex movements in Africa become lost, or misunderstood, distorted, or misrepresented, all of which would weaken the current and future work of trans and intersex individuals and organisations on the continent. In documenting the histories as accurately as we can, we want to provide a clear understanding of the strength of the trans and intersex movements on the continent by documenting evidence of how long and how hard African activists, groups and organisations have worked towards human rights for trans and intersex people throughout Africa and the Diaspora. We are making a start with the information currently available but invite stories in whatever media to be submitted from across the continent and from the many places and voices not yet represented. We particularly invite first person stories and can facilitate the sharing of these.