Tag Archives: Liberia

Via Reuters: Leroy Ponpon doesn’t know whether to lock himself in his flat in Monrovia because of the deadly Ebola virus, or because he is gay. Christian churches’ recent linking of the two have made life hell for him and hundreds of other gays. Ponpon, an LGBT campaigner in the Liberian capital, says gays have been harassed, physically attacked and …

The above headline is from the Washington Post: According to Front Page Africa and the Daily Observer, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called on Tuesday for all residents to fast for three days and pray for forgiveness. “Relying on His divine guidance for our survival as a nation,” she announced, “I call on all Liberians to observe three days of national …

The United Nations Human Rights Office has condemned Liberia’s plan to stiffen the penalties for homosexuality. The new legislation makes homosexual acts, including sodomy and lesbian acts, a second degree felony, the punishment for which includes a fine and up to five years in jail. Such acts, including “voluntary sodomy,” are currently classified as misdemeanors and carry a one-year jail …

Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia and the one-time business partner of Pat Robertson, was found guilty today of a long list of war crimes, including crimes against humanity. Taylor faces life in prison. His trial lasted five years, during which the court heard a catalog of horrific acts committed by rebels whom Taylor helped arm in Sierra Leone’s …

As a bill that worsens the penalty for homosexuality wends its way through Liberia’s legislature, an anti-gay Christian group has published a hit list in which they vow to track down every gay person for brutal punishment. The fliers include this threat: “Let these individuals be aware that we are coming after them soon. We urge them to also begin …

Last week Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who last year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, refused to consider decriminalizing homosexuality. The U.S. State Department said yesterday that it is troubled by Sirleaf’s position. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. stood by its policy of aggressively promoting gay rights. But asked about Sirleaf’s statements, just two months after …

We were previously encouraged by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s words against a proposed bill dramatically increasing the penalties for homosexuality. But that’s as far as she goes. The Guardian reports: The Nobel peace prize winner and president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has defended a law that criminalises homosexual acts, saying: “We like ourselves just the way we are.” …

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says that she won’t sign the proposed anti-gay bill now wending its way through the legislature. Last week the widow of Johnson-Sirleaf’s predecessor introduced a bill calling for the execution of homosexuals. That penalty has apparently since been watered down to a mere ten years in prison. A Liberian senator says the Senate will consider a …

Warren Throckmorton reports that a death penalty for homosexuality has been proposed in the Liberian legislature. Former Liberian first lady Jewel Howard Taylor has introduced a bill making homosexuality liable to a death sentence, amid a raging debate over gay rights in the country, a lawmaker said Wednesday. The bill submitted by former president Charles Taylor’s ex-wife, now a senator, …

According to the former president of Liberia, televangelist Pat Robertson traded gold mine concessions there in return for lobbying the Bush administration on his behalf. The revelations came in the midst of Taylor’s U.N.-backed trial on 11 counts of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s 1990s civil war. Taylor is accused of directing a Sierra Leonean …