Stop the Anti-Gay Bill in Liberia

The Liberian Senate passed into law an anti-gay bill seeking to prevent same sex marriage in Liberia, on Thursday 29th July.

If agreed by the House of Representative, the bill will be forwarded to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for perusal and subsequent signing into law.

We the people of the world ask that the race to become the “Iran” of Africa is abandoned by Liberia and that Liberia stop discriminating and persecuting LGBTs and that under no circumstance does President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf approve or sign into law, the “Anti-Gay Bill “. 

The Anti-Gay Bill is sponsored by Bong County Senior Senator Jewel Howard Taylor.

Sen. Nagbe said, “The practices of both lesbianism and homosexuality will be capital offense and violators will subjected to the consequences of the law”.

The senator also warmed that same sex couples visiting the country should abide the laws of Liberia or will bears the full penalty of the law. "If you are gay or lesbian and you having to come here we expect you to behave orderly. That is, stay away from each other until your departure", he added.

For her part, Sen. Taylor praised her colleagues for the level of support shown in ensuring that the bill is passed. She expressed strong anticipation that the members of the House of Representatives will do likewise in the shortest possible time.

Government and Opposition MPs have questioned President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s anti-gay credentials and have demanded she declare where she stands on the issue, earlier this week, and provide a clear position on the issue at an event formalizing the Liberian Parliament’s Fellowship of Christian Lawmakers. 

Also at the event MPs, denounced same-sex marriage as ‘immoral,’ citing the story of Sodom and Gomorrah from the Bible.

 ‘The President is not for nor is she against. What does that say? She needs to take a definite position on this issue,’ Fahnbulleh said. ‘The President has to take a definite position with respect to the gay issue. Where she chooses to stand in the middle-of-the-road will not speak well for us. ‘I am against gay marriage in our country. We should not allow the infusion of every western concept in our society. We need to make sure that our own tradition and cultures are protected.’

The MP’s comments came despite Johnson-Sirleaf telling the Guardian newspaper, in March ,that she supported Liberia’s current penalty for consensual sodomy of up to a year in prison, but was against any further criminalization of it. ‘We like ourselves just the way we are,’ ‘We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve.’ she added.

We the people of the world ask that the race to become the “Iran” of Africa is abandoned by Liberia and that Liberia stop discriminating and persecuting LGBTs and that under no circumstance does President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf approve or sign into law, the “Anti-Gay Bill “.