Matthew Nwozaku Chukwudi Blaise[1] is a Nigerian queer rights activist.[2]
In March 2020, after the murder of a gay man in Nigeria, Blaise created a Twitter campaign with Ani Kayode Somtochukwu and Victor Emmanuel. The three successfully made the hashtag "#EndHomophobiainNigeria" trend on Nigerian Twitter for multiple days.
Having been detained and threatened by Special Anti-Robbery Squad officers for "perceived homosexuality", Blaise became active in the October 2020 End SARS protests, where they were verbally assaulted for carrying a sign with the words "Queer Lives Matter".[3] They additionally organized a group of other queer people to attend the protests.
After the 2020 Lekki shooting, Blaise started working with Safe HQuse to support queer protestors and survivors.
Blaise is non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns. [4] they were attending Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo in Nigeria, seeking a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literary Studies.[5]
Blaise became more outspoken about their sexuality on social media after they were punched and choked by a priest for being gay in 2019, and other people in the church did not intervene.
Blaise was a Women Deliver youth leader in 2020; they were 22 years old at the time. Also in 2020, they were a winner of The Future Awards Africa "Prize for Leading Conversations",[6] and The Initiative For Equal Rights' award for "SOGIESC Rights Activist of the Year".[7]
In June 2021, they were featured in a short film by Dafe Oboro that accompanied the summer 2021 cover story of Dazed.[8] In November 2021, they were honoured with a "Generation Change Award" at the 2021 MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest.[9]