Aderonke Apata has been campaigning to remain in the UK for over 10 years. Yet she is still being threatened with deportation to Nigeria.
47-year-old Apata is an award-winning LGBTQ rights campaigner and lesbian, whose partner, Happiness Agboro, also lives in the UK. At her judicial review hearing last week, the Home Secretary's barrister Andrew Bird argued that Apata can't be a lesbian as she has had children with a man. Bird also described Apata as a "lesbian stereotype", saying: "one can't be a heterosexual one day and a homosexual another". In Nigeria lesbians can face a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
