The UK government says this Nigerian gay rights activist isn’t a lesbian because she has children

In most countries, Aderonke Apata would be considered a lesbian.

For a start, the Nigerian award-winning gay rights campaigner, who is fighting for asylum in the UK on the grounds she would face persecution — or worse — in Nigeria for being homosexual, identifies as a lesbian.

The 47-year-old is also engaged to a woman and even spent time in a Nigerian prison for being gay before fleeing to the UK in 2004.

And if that's not convincing enough, she’s prepared to submit a DVD and photographs of her sex life to prove it. 

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But the British Home Office, the government department responsible for immigration matters, clearly has a much higher threshold than most when it comes to proving one's sexuality.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Home Office claims Apata is not a real lesbian.

In the grossly outdated view of the Home Office, which has refused to grant Apata asylum, Apata can’t possibly be gay because she’s had heterosexual partners. And she has children.

“You can't be a heterosexual one day and a lesbian the next day. Just as you can't change your race,” the Home Office’s barrister, Andrew Bird, told London’s High Court this week where Apata is appealing the government’s ruling.

Bird didn't stop there. 

Apata "has deliberately altered her appearance … to a lesbian stereotype" and is “not part of the social group known as lesbians,” he argued, although he did concede that she had “indulged in same-sex activity.”

Apata’s lawyer, Abid Mahmood, described Bird’s outrageous comments as  “highly offensive … stereotypical views of the past.”

“Some members of the public may have those views but it doesn't mean a government department should be putting these views forward in evidence,” Mahmood said.

The stakes are high for Apata. If she is deported to Nigeria she could face up to 14 years in jail under draconian laws adopted by the government in 2014.

Human Rights Watch, along with gay rights activists in Nigeria and elsewhere, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to repeal the “sweeping and dangerous” legislation.

The new legislation could lead to imprisonment solely for a person’s actual or imputed sexual orientation. People could face charges for consensual sexual relations in private; advocacy of LGBT rights; or public expression of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The terms “same-sex marriage” and “civil union” are so broadly defined in the law that they include virtually any form of same-sex cohabitation.

Let’s hope Deputy High Court judge John Bowers, who is expected to hand down his ruling on Apata's appeal later this month, has more up to date views on sexuality.