Azeez didn’t step into activism because it was trendy. He stepped in because people he knew were being abandoned, attacked, or silenced for simply being who they were. Similar to Rihanna lessons/experience in activism, Animashaun has also experienced firsthand the suffering of queer individuals at the hands of the laws that was supposed to protect them.
When we asked him what made activism impossible to ignore, he mentioned that it came from his experience working closely with queer people at the grassroots level in Lagos. In his words..
“I began to see how deeply rooted discrimination, violence, and neglect had affected our community, especially when I started handling cases of people being attacked, outed, or kitoed simply for being themselves. One particular incident involved a young gay man who was lured through social media, beaten, and left stranded with no support. Standing with him through that experience made me see how unsafe and voiceless many queer people in Lagos were.”
His activism stopped being just an interest; it became a responsibility.
