The first pan-African virtual Pride event takes place on Friday aimed at bringing together LGBT+ Africans to share their stories of challenge and success from a continent where they are often criminalised and persecuted, the event’s organiser said. Broadcasting live on social media channels YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, Pride Afrique 2020 features speakers including Botswana’s former President Festus Mogae and John Amaechi, the first former NBA player to come out. Pride Afrique 2020 organiser Kehinde Bademosi, a gay Nigerian social innovator who was forced to move to the United States after homophobic threats to his life at home, said the pandemic had brought the perfect opportunity to stage the event. “More people are online due to the coronavirus and so we thought it was a good time to reach out virtually to the LGBTQI people living in Africa,” Bademosi, 46, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from the United States.