By Ijeoma Ilekanachi
Bolu Okupe, son of former presidential spokesman, Doyin Okupe has opined that many African men are bisexual but choose to remain in the closet.
Bolu who recently came out as gay, took to his Instagram page to discuss the prevalent stigmatization of bis3xuals.
He stated that bis3xuals are stigmatized by both straight people and gays and this is the reason most of them remain in their closets and get married to straight women.
He also stated that the topic of bis3xuality needs to be discussed more in Black/African communities.
Bolu also noted that neglecting the concept of bis3xuality does more harm to the women of the community who believe they are married to straight men.
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He wrote; “Bis3xuality within the Black / African communities should be more openly discussed and less stigmatized. In Black / African communities the topic of bis3xuality (usually amongst men) is almost as taboo of a discussion as homosexuality.
‘‘The issue that a lot of bisexual men face is that both the heterosexuals as well as other gay men will be very quick to brand them as simply gay & in denial because many of the people on both sides ignorantly have the opinion that once you are open or fluid enough to same s3x attraction & experiences, it makes you automatically gay / lesbian, which is not the case.
‘‘So it can sometimes be understandable (however not excusable) why a large portion of Black/African bis3xual men choose to remain in the closet and hide under the straight umbrella in order to avoid the vapid & relentless judgements from both sides, the “straights” and the “gays”.
‘‘In all of this, the people affected the most are the women who will have no idea of the kind of double lives their husbands live. This is a direct result of the toxic & backwards culture that many women also unfortunately participate in which in turn actually affects them negatively. As a woman, you, your mother, sister or daughter could be currently married to or will eventually marry a bis3xual man,” Bolu added.
