Gay, HIV-positive immigrant combats UKIP

With less than 24 hours to go until the polls open, one man is making a last-minute attempt to dissuade voters from voting for UKIP in Nigel Farage’s target seat of Thanet South. Bisi Alimi is a Nigerian-born British citizen and renowned gay rights activist, who is also HIV-positive. He decided to start campaigning in the constituency where Nigel Farage is standing for election after the UKIP leader blamed foreign-born HIV patients for the strain on NHS funding.

Bisi fled his native Nigeria in 2007 after being persecuted for his sexuality. After becoming the first Nigerian to come out on television in 2004, he found himself the subject of international attention and was threatened, beaten and tortured, eventually culminating in an attempt on his life. In an attempt to challenge voters’ perceptions of immigrants in the Kent town, Bisi has been stood outside UKIP’s campaign stall holding a sign which reads: ‘I am an immigrant, hug me or ask me a question’. He told the Mirror: “The stunt started because I experienced a racist attack from a UKIP member while I was with Thanet South campaigning against Nigel Farage. The old man called me a lazy immigrant.” The 40-year-old said: “I decided to carry the placard as a way of giving immigration a face and also allowing people to ask me questions to ally their fears of immigrants”.

Bisi added that he received an overwhlemingly positive reaction from the members of the public he encountered: “I faced my fear, I went into the town hall, with a placard and stood there for 5 hours asking people to hug me or ask me a question. “It was such a powerful turn around of events that many people told me they wanted to vote UKIP but after asking me questions changed their mind. “Here is the story of the man in the beige jacket. He stood afar from me for a while, kept looking at me. He was there with his wife. “Then the wife walked up to me and started engaging with me. She hugged me. Then the man came shook my hand and said, ‘thank you for doing this.’ “Then I said, ‘You know you want a hug’, to which he answered ‘yes I sure do want a hug’ and then we hugged. “I told him like I did to others ‘Please don’t vote UKIP’ and he said ‘to hell I won’t’. “I love Thanet South.”