Nigerian Afro-soul Simi “Ogunleye” Kosoko has tendered her unreserved apology to the Nigerian LGBTQ+ community after making homophobic statements in 2019.
In a tweet, she released an apology stating she’s come to see the dangers living as a gay person in Nigeria poses and no one has to live that way.
According to her statement, she’d learned someone she knows almost died from homophobic attacks and that brought her to realise gay people don’t have to live in fear and discrimination all their lives.
See the note below
— Simi (@SympLySimi) August 3, 2020
For context, during a session on her YouTube page Stoopid Sessions, the singer said she thought homosexuality was unnatural.
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The episode was initially about navigating the dating pool of millennials. On the show with Kiekie and Sisi, the three discussed dating preambles and the differences in s*xual prepositions. In the course of discussions, Simi declared she hasn’t seen any medical proof to back claims that being queer was natural.
”They say they are born that way but I haven’t seen any biological piece,”
This caused the “Duduke” crooner to receive fiery backlash and criticism from Nigeria’s growing LGBTQ+ community and supporters and some threatened to withdraw their support and stop streaming their music. The episode has since being deleted from her YouTube channel.
Now Simi’s apologised but the timing is curious. Her singer husband Adekunle Gold has just been featured on the cover of a queer publication, Quazar Magazine, and many Twitter users are drawing the connection, alluding she may be trying to evade another batch of backlash hence, the apology.
Coincidence ? How convenient is it that when Simi gave her apology, Adekunle Gold is in a magazine centered around queer creatives ? pic.twitter.com/NgZCOXJSq8
— ebele. (@ebelee_) August 3, 2020
Other than that, the apology was received well by fans of the singer as they’ve hailed for her courage
Simi is the truth. Her evolution right before our eyes is unprecedented. Whatever her foibles, I don’t care. Time and again, she’s shown herself as publicly teachable. That’s way more than I can say for a lot of these biro carrying cancel merchants who were born perfect. Lol.
— T. Rankïn’ ∆ 🏁 (@AfroVII) August 3, 2020
I don’t do crumbs men, but you see this? It brought tears to my eyes.
It has been so painful having to cancel Simi because of her problematic stance on my existence, so seeing this no matter what her true heart may be is truly heartwarming.
Keep learning. You are a mother now. https://t.co/wrqt04gKzO— Son of Hauwa (@PettyMuse) August 3, 2020
Guys, Simi is apologizing to the community. Whew.
I like the fact that she admitted to what she did. She didn’t try to blame it on something. I’m going to need Nigerian musicians to actually check their bias and listen to actual queer people. https://t.co/I1tRBfOjTB
— Moyomade🏳️🌈 (@womyn_witch) August 3, 2020
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