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A Conversation With Davis Mac-Iyalla: The Other Side of the Story |
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Written by St. Thomas' Parish
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Tuesday, July 3, 2007 |
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Davis Mac-Iyalla, director of Changing Attitudes-Nigeria, a support group for LGBT members of Nigeria's Anglican Church, spoke on July 3 at St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish on the struggles of Nigeria's gay community in the face of official and societal oppression. Mr. Mac-Iyalla visited historic St. Thomas', located at 18th and Church Streets, NW in Washington's Dupont Circle neighborhood, as the final stop in a three-month speaking tour of the United States.
Mr. Mac-Iyalla has been arrested, beaten and incarcerated for possession of printed gay-friendly materials found in his car, and later forced to flee the country following numerous death threats. The Nigerian Anglican Church, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola, has steadily pressured the Nigerian government to enact a series of repressive laws designed to silence gay Nigerian voices. At one point, Mr. Mac-Iyalla was harassed by the Rev. Tunde Popoola, Canon for Communications for the Archibishop of Abuja, who accused him of a variety of crimes, denied he was a member of the Anglican Church, and even insisted that Mr. Mac-Iyalla had ever existed.
Archbishop Akinola has been a key player in the present schism in the U.S. Episcopal Church by naming his own bishop for several breakaway American congregations.
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