Refugee’s world record attempt for walking backwards ‘highlights backwards opinions’ towards LGBTQ+ people

LGBTQ+ refugee Joel Mordi is attempting to create a Guinness World Record for walking backwards to raise awareness for the fight against homophobia.

Joel was honoured at the 2023 Attitude Pride Awards, in association with Magnum for his part in organising Nigeria’s first mass LGBTQ+ Pride protest in 2019, entering the UK as a refugee shortly after. And now, he’s attempting to break a world record by walking 15,000km backwards.

Joel intends to bring attention to the “backwards opinions” towards LGBTQ+ people

The activity, often referred to as retro-walking, acts as a metaphor, Joel says, as he intends to bring attention to the “backwards opinions” held towards LGBTQ+ people around the world.

Joel came up with the idea  to break the world record for his cause over a decade ago but feared attempting it due to his homeland’s oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

“I did some research in my teens in 2013 to see who had covered the longest distance whilst retro walking, and a name popped up: Plennie Lawrence Wingo, who travelled backwards in 1931 during the Great Depression,” Joel told Attitude.

“And so I archived it as we could not undertake the challenge in 2015 back in Nigeria, due to obvious security reasons and after the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act had come into full effect.”

Now living in London, Joel began his mission in February with a 12-hour retro walk around the city’s Tooting Bec Athletics Track.

As well as “raising awareness, funds, and inspiring action against harmful laws”, Joel says the organisation of the record attempt has proved as difficult as the task itself.

“The fight for LGBTQ+ liberation is almost never complete”

For the next 12 months, as he attempts to break the world record and raise awareness, Joel will continue his fight against discrimination and in turn, spread a message of positivity and unity.

“I doubt this challenge will ever be ‘complete’ … but by my very nature, like other defiant champions before me, the fight for LGBTQ+ liberation is almost never complete,” Joel says.

“I have learnt from distant and recent history that regression can take centre stage if we become too comfortable.”

As for what’s next after the challenge, Joel says: “I hope to continue to push the envelope and inspire a new generation of young leaders who more than anything will ‘walk the talk’ and lead by their actions rather than only by their words.”