New law targeting Bobrisky, Brown, other drag queens passes first reading

Bobrisky, James Brown and their crossdressing ilk will be having it worse in Nigeria as federal lawmakers consider outlawing the act of men wearing drags in Nigeria.

Hon Muda Lawal Umar has sponsored a bill to that effect, and the bill just pass its first reading , passed first reading on Tuesday.

The legislation is titled ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2013 to Prohibit Cross Dressing; and for Related Matters.’

It seeks to amend Section 4 of the Act by inserting a new Sub-clause 3 that reads: (1) Cross—dressing whether done publicly  prohibited.

(2) A person shall be deemed to have committed the offence publicly where it is published or displayed publicly notwithstanding that it was committed privately or in any place that would have ordinarily been described as private.

“Provided that this section of this Act shall not apply to cross dressing in the course of a stage play or in any bona fide public entertainment.”

“A person engaged in cross dressing is guilty of an offense and liable to imprisonment for six (6) months o to a fine of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000).

The bill further seeks an amendment to Section 7 of the Act iby introducing the word ‘cross dressing’ and defining it as “…the practice of wearing clothes usually worn by a person of the opposite sex,” a section of the proposed amendment states.

Young Nigerians dabbling in the subculture are getting popular online, though many Nigerians think it’s not appropriate to swap such identity marker as dresses.