Pamela Adie

Although she was married to a man, she revealed that she is openly lesbian in an announcement made in 2011 after discussing with her family members.^[5] She hails from Calabar, Cross River State.^[6]

Adie pursued her MBA degree at the Webster University and completed her master's degree from the University of Baltimore. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Superior.^[2] She pursued her career as an LGBT rights advocate and officially became Nigeria's first lesbian activist. She also attended the World Economic Forum in 2017 and spoke in the inaugural edition of the "Meet Leading LGBT Rights Activists". In the forum, she also addressed the importance of including LGBT people in the workplace.^[7]

She wrote, directed and produced Nigeria’s first lesbian-focused documentary film titled Under the Rainbow (2019) which largely focuses on her personal life.^[8][9] In 2019, she was one of ten nominees shortlisted for the inaugural edition of the Mary Chirwa Award for Courageous Leadership, which was initiated in 2018.^[10]

Adie announced her intention on making a feature film on lesbian community in Nigeria and executively produced the film Ìfé. The production of the film became controversial due to the government ban on lesbian related work. The project was initiated jointly by Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim and Adie in collaboration with the Equality Hub.^[11] The film is regarded as Nigeria's first ever lesbian feature film and concerns about censorship also emerged due to its genre.^[12][13] However, the release of the film was delayed due to censorship issues, and Adie, along with the film’s director, was threatened by the authorities with possible imprisonment after allegations emerged that the filmmakers intended to release the film internationally.^[14]