Human SexualityReps Considers Bill Seeking Six Months Jail Term, N500,000 Fine For Crossdressers In Nigeria

ABUJA — A bill seeking to outlaw cross-dressing in Nigeria has been introduced for first reading at the House of Representatives.

Eight years after the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA) was signed into law by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Reps have revisited the bill seeking its amendment.

Referencing Section 4 of the SSMPA, Honourable Muda Lawal Ulnar who sponsored the bill titled “A bill for an act to amend Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act 2023 to prohibit cross-dressing and other related matters” on Tuesday during plenary, proposed that cross-dressing whether done privately or publicly, should be prohibited.

The bill seeks to make changes to Section 4 of the SSMPA (2013) by inserting after the existing sub-clause a new clause that reads: “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 bonafide public entertainment.”

The lawmaker also proposed 6 months imprisonment or a fine of N500,000 for anyone found guilty.

“A person engaging in cross-dressing is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment of 6 months or to a fine of five hundred thousand naira,” the bill says.

In addition, Hon. Ulnar is seeking for Section 7 of the Principal Act to be amended by introducing the word “cross-dressing” and defining same as “the practice of wearing clothes usually worn by a person of the opposite sex.”