Oftentimes, well known and controversial celebrities find themselves in the hot seat and American rapper Lil Nas X is no stranger to that. His tweet originally posted on March 22, 2023 (which has since been deleted), came with a lot of backlash as the rapper asked,
“where do the gays be in Africa I wanna come there”.
Though he may not have meant anything bad or any ill intentions with his question, the timing of his Tweet could not have been worse as Uganda’s parliament has just passed brutal anti-LGBTQ+ legislation criminalizing anyone who identifies themselves as LGBTQ or anything other than male or female with penalties that of up to ten years.
NPR reports that sentencing can include life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Therefore, it’s no wonder why his Tweet triggered many people negatively, as they flooded comments under his Tweet educating him about the realities of life for gay people in Africa and informing the young rapper that the topic of being “gay” is not a joke in Africa and should not be treated as one.
LGBTQIA+ is an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual, and more. It is used to describe a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
