Overview
- The Peter Tatchell Foundation and allied groups staged the “Commonwealth Walk of Shame” in central London on Saturday, with Sir Ian McKellen speaking outside the Nigerian High Commission before marchers protested at eight Commonwealth high commissions.
- Organisers said many participants were LGBT+ refugees who had fled arrest, beatings or forced displacement in their home countries and who marched to show solidarity and press for change.
- Campaigners highlighted that 29 of the Commonwealth’s 56 members still criminalise same‑sex relationships, with six countries exposing people to life terms and three retaining the death penalty, citing Uganda, Brunei and parts of northern Nigeria as examples.
- Protesters called for institutional action by the monarchy and by Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the new Commonwealth secretary‑general, including an apology for the colonial role in importing these laws and active pressure on governments to uphold the Commonwealth Charter’s equality commitments.
- The demonstration framed the issue as a direct legacy of British colonial penal codes that remain on the books across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific and said those laws fuel police raids, mob violence and asylum flows that damage lives and communities.