After Saint Petersburg, it is now Liberia’s turn to step forward with two anti-gay bills that are threatening to make homosexuality punishable by jail time, and perhaps even the death penalty.
The first bill introduced at the beginning of February by Senator Jewel Taylor, makes same-sex marriage a first degree felony, which means anyone found having same-sex relationships could face punishment ranging from 10 years in jail to the death sentence. This bill has been followed by a second anti-gay bill introduced by Rep. Clarence Massaquoi, making "same-sex sexual practices" a second degree felony, which could lead up to 5 years in jail. The bill would also apply to anyone who "seduces, encourages or promotes another person to engage in same sex activities."
The issue on gay rights has been in the centre of debate this year as a new group known as the Movement for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians in Liberia (MODEGAL) began campaigning and promoting gay rights in January. Activists of this group have been chased off university campuses on two different occasions and their head, Leroy Archie Ponpon, was taken away by the police from a radio station on February 23rd after a crowd of people had gathered to protest his appearance on a morning show. Members from the gay and lesbian community have said that they have been subjected to more and more threats and violence as their security situation has worsened. The debate has also increased since government officials have raised their voices against gay rights. House speaker Alex Tyler has assured that no bills endorsing gay rights would be passed while he was in office, and the President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will not sign into law any bill supporting gay rights as he said that the Liberian government is a government that "opposes gay rights".
But could something else have provoked the Liberian government into writing two anti-gay bills?
Last December the United States declared that they would support African countries that would legalize gay rights and cut off aid from the countries refusing to do so, the aim of the United States being to ensure gay rights all over the African continent. Shortly after Hilary Clinton’s speech, in which she declared that gay rights are human rights and announced the United States as an ally to all LGBT people worldwide, Liberian newspapers began publishing anti-gay editorials. Could this be a desire of Liberia to prove that they have no need for financial aid from the United States, as a representative declared "Liberia is a sovereign State with enormous natural resources and do not have to depend on aid to survive". Or could it be that other African States such as Nigeria and Uganda are influencing Liberia’s government? As we know, Nigeria passed at the end of last year a bill banning same-sex marriages therefore defying Britain’s aid threat. Uganda, a State where homosexual acts were already illegal, also reintroduced it’s anti-gay bill last month, which punishes homosexuality by life in prison.
Whatever its motivations, these bills are an alarming step back for Liberia which had been making considerable progress in democracy over the last five years.
Follow @FRW
