Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…
Eight gay men and two lesbians have been set free this year in Cameroon and Nigeria because of readers’ donations to Project Not Alone, which helps the innocent victims of African homophobia.
All 10 had been locked up for nothing other than whom they love.
“I was treated like a criminal, just for who I am,” said Bob, who was incarcerated without a trial at Bertoua Prison in Cameroon after his gay lover turned on him and claimed that their relationship wasn’t consensual.
Those 10 imprisoned victims of anti-LGBTQ hostility and homophobia were the focus of this year’s Project Not Alone, which built on the project’s previous work that won early release for 46 gay, lesbian and trans prisoners in Cameroon and Nigeria during the years 2019 through 2024. Project Not Alone only works for prisoners who have been incarcerated for nothing other than their sexual orientation.
This year’s original goal was to free 12 innocent prisoners, but family and friends of one imprisoned gay couple unexpectedly paid their fines and set them free before Project Not Alone had raised enough money to do so.
Since its inception in 2019, Project Not Alone has set free a total of 56 LGBTQ prisoners.
The prisoners in Project Not Alone this year were in Maroua, northern Cameroon; in Bertoua, eastern Cameroon; and in Port Harcourt, southeastern Nigeria. For their safety, pseudonyms are always used in articles about the detainees.
The year’s financial goal was $12,861 to pay prisoners’ fines and provide lawyers working pro-bono for the three detainees who were being held pending trial. Readers’ donations totaled $6,048, which was used to pay for hygiene supplies and supplementary food for prisoners during the months while they awaited release from their dirty prison cells, typically surviving on one filthy, poorly cooked meal per day.
We ended up spending $8,614 — less than we had expected, both because of the unexpected release of the two gay prisoners and because we weren’t able to raise as much money for food deliveries as we had hoped.
The UK-based Grand Camp Maisie Fund (GCMF) which supports LGBTQ-related projects, made up the shortfall. Much of that was money that we and GCMF hoped to use for employment training for newly released prisoners, but we had to use it instead to pay prisoners’ fines.
We learned about nine of the 10 prisoners during visits to the prisons in Maroua and Bertoua that were underwritten by a GCMF grant.
The Grand Camp Maisie Fund was created by the will of the late British LGBTQ rights activist Andrew Lumsden, who was instrumental in organizing London’s first Pride March in 1972.
During the prison visits, LGBTI rights activists working for Project Not Alone delivered groceries (rice, oil, plantain, dried fish, peanuts, food paste, soap, detergent, etc.) and interviewed LGBTI detainees. Nine of them met the requirements of Project Not Alone: Each of them was incarcerated for nothing other than their sexual orientation.
A total of 56 innocent prisoners have been freed by Project Not Alone since 2019:
Our focus on Project Not Alone fundraising from May through September 2025 left Erasing 76 Crimes with only a little remaining cash to pay for its fundamental work of publishing articles about the human toll of 65+ countries’ anti-gay laws and the struggle to repeal them.
Without that work, Project Not Alone wouldn’t be possible.
If you’re in a position to help us pay our activist reporters, please consider making a generous donation. Our financial sponsor, the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, is a tax-exempt charity, so donations are U.S. tax-deductible via:
Eight gay men and two lesbians have been set free this year in Cameroon and Nigeria because of readers’ donations to Project Not Alone, which helps the innocent victims of African homophobia.
All 10 had been locked up for nothing other than whom they love.
“I was treated like a criminal, just for who I am,” said Bob, who was incarcerated without a trial at Bertoua Prison in Cameroon after his gay lover turned on him and claimed that their relationship wasn’t consensual.
Those 10 imprisoned victims of anti-LGBTQ hostility and homophobia were the focus of this year’s Project Not Alone, which built on the project’s previous work that won early release for 46 gay, lesbian and trans prisoners in Cameroon and Nigeria during the years 2019 through 2024. Project Not Alone only works for prisoners who have been incarcerated for nothing other than their sexual orientation.
This year’s original goal was to free 12 innocent prisoners, but family and friends of one imprisoned gay couple unexpectedly paid their fines and set them free before Project Not Alone had raised enough money to do so.
Since its inception in 2019, Project Not Alone has set free a total of 56 LGBTQ prisoners.
The prisoners in Project Not Alone this year were in Maroua, northern Cameroon; in Bertoua, eastern Cameroon; and in Port Harcourt, southeastern Nigeria. For their safety, pseudonyms are always used in articles about the detainees.
The year’s financial goal was $12,861 to pay prisoners’ fines and provide lawyers working pro-bono for the three detainees who were being held pending trial. Readers’ donations totaled $6,048, which was used to pay for hygiene supplies and supplementary food for prisoners during the months while they awaited release from their dirty prison cells, typically surviving on one filthy, poorly cooked meal per day.
We ended up spending $8,614 — less than we had expected, both because of the unexpected release of the two gay prisoners and because we weren’t able to raise as much money for food deliveries as we had hoped.
The UK-based Grand Camp Maisie Fund (GCMF) which supports LGBTQ-related projects, made up the shortfall. Much of that was money that we and GCMF hoped to use for employment training for newly released prisoners, but we had to use it instead to pay prisoners’ fines.
We learned about nine of the 10 prisoners during visits to the prisons in Maroua and Bertoua that were underwritten by a GCMF grant.
The Grand Camp Maisie Fund was created by the will of the late British LGBTQ rights activist Andrew Lumsden, who was instrumental in organizing London’s first Pride March in 1972.
During the prison visits, LGBTI rights activists working for Project Not Alone delivered groceries (rice, oil, plantain, dried fish, peanuts, food paste, soap, detergent, etc.) and interviewed LGBTI detainees. Nine of them met the requirements of Project Not Alone: Each of them was incarcerated for nothing other than their sexual orientation.
A total of 56 innocent prisoners have been freed by Project Not Alone since 2019:
Our focus on Project Not Alone fundraising from May through September 2025 left Erasing 76 Crimes with only a little remaining cash to pay for its fundamental work of publishing articles about the human toll of 65+ countries’ anti-gay laws and the struggle to repeal them.
Without that work, Project Not Alone wouldn’t be possible.
If you’re in a position to help us pay our activist reporters, please consider making a generous donation. Our financial sponsor, the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, is a tax-exempt charity, so donations are U.S. tax-deductible via: