Bel Trew’s documentary, titled Hunted: Kidnapped, blackmailed and tortured for being LGBTQ+, offers a powerful and deeply human portrayal of the realities faced by LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria. At a time when global humanitarian funding is shrinking and HIV services are under increasing pressure, the film serves as both a warning and a call to action.
The people in this documentary are not just statistics; they are my friends, bravely fighting injustice in a country I was forced to leave thanks to intolerance and threats to my life and work. The stories featured in the documentary are not isolated incidents. They reflect the daily experiences of many LGBTQ+ people, who live at the intersection of discrimination, poverty, violence, and limited access to healthcare. All of us have different tales to tell – but what is key is that work to make lives better is offered support, and not crushed under the weight of discrimination and violence.
