Liberia: Legislator seeks supporters for his harsh anti-homosexuality bill
Proposal would imprison Liberian children as young as 10 years old for gay sex
A legislator in Liberia is seeking support for a harsh anti-homosexuality bill that he filed in the summer.
So far, he hasn’t announced any success in attracting supporters for the legislation, which calls for prison sentences for children as young as 10 if they are convicted of homosexual behavior.
“This is a witch hunt to target a particular community using the homophobic environment to target certain people,” said a spokesperson for the LGBTQ-friendly Liberian Health and Rights Journalists Network.
Under existing Liberian law, consensual same-sex intercourse is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or a prison sentence of up to one year.
In July, Representative Johnson Williams submitted a bill that would increase that penalty to 10 years, with a life sentence for repeat offenders and for other types of what the bill calls “aggravated homosexuality” such as sex with a child or disabled person. Williams would classify homosexual activity as a felony.
The bill would imprison children aged 10 to 15 for three years and those between 16 and 18 for six years if they are found guilty of homosexual activity.
The proposed law would outlaw advocacy for LGBTIQ+ rights and so-called “promotion of homosexuality”, which would be punished with up to 20 years in prison.
It would impose a L$10,000 fine (about US$52) and/or a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone who allows their property to be used for the “purposes of homosexuality.”
Any “legal entity” convicted of promoting homosexuality would be fined up to L$1 million (about US $5,200), suspended for 25 years, or shut down.
The bill, titled the Anti-Homosexuality Law of Liberia 2024, mimics many aspects of the harsh anti-homosexuality laws of Nigeria and Uganda and the anti-LGBTQ bill that Ghana’s parliament approved last February, which is awaiting a ruling from Ghana’s Supreme Court.
In arguing for his bill, Williams deployed the usual array of often rebutted claims: “Homosexuality is a social, cultural, traditional, economic, and religious evil. It’s not Liberian! It’s not African! It’s not our tradition! ”
“It’s time we join our African Brothers and Sisters of Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria to make our position known to the rest of the World on this social menace and evil. It’s a foreign ideology being promoted and imposed on us!” he said in a post on Facebook.
He urged “all well-meaning Liberians, including the media” to “join me to mobilize and build a coalition” in favor of his bill. So far, he has not announced any progress toward that goal.
The bill was forwarded to the legislature’s joint committees on Gender, Health, and Judiciary.
JournalRAGE Liberia reported that the bill has increased anxiety in “Liberia’s underground LGBTQ+ community who continue to suffer from violent homophobia”.
The online news site reported:
[Many] many see the Bill as targeting the LGBTQ+ community in Liberia, which continues to suffer harassment, discrimination and other forms of violence.
The chairperson of the National Civil Society Council, Loretta Alethea Pope, said the rights of everyone must be upheld. “We strongly support our members who are actively involved in advocating for human rights,” she wrote in an email statement to journalRAGE.
Critics fear that the bill will embolden further attacks against individuals from Liberia’s underground LGBTQ+ community who continue to suffer from violent homophobia.
The US State Department 2023 Human Rights report recorded instances of assault, harassment and hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community in Liberia.
In May 2023, Dominic Bropleh (name changed to protect his identity) accused FHI360 of outing his health status when the organization plastered his face on flyers across the country as an HIV+ individual.
In May 2021, members of a community watch team beat three men on suspicion they were gays in the Gobachop community of Paynesville. According to two of the survivors, the community watch team members threatened and assaulted them, rendering one of their friends unconscious.
In June 2021, Nuchie Michael, a teenager and a student at the St. Matthew United Methodist School in New Kru Town was expelled for cross-dressing.
In 2020, Cheeseman Cole, a disgraced ex-soldier from the Armed Forces of Liberia was arrested for reportedly brutalizing 27 men suspected of being gay.
In November 2019, partygoers were stoned and beaten over suspicions they were attending a gay wedding at an event hosted by Population Services International (PSI).
In September 2018, invitees at a PSI event in Sinkor were attacked and severely brutalized. The LGBT community faces worse discrimination as they are often blamed by religious leaders for spreading deadly diseases in the country.
Identifying as gay is not illegal in Liberia. But it could spur violent attacks against a person that does so. In May 2020, fashion model Tarus Cole fled the country over remarks that ‘99% of Liberian men are gay.’
Liberian law criminalizes same-sex sexual acts. Articles 14.74, 14.79, and 50.7 [of the Penal Code of 1976], which the Anti Homosexuality Bill seeks to amend, consider “voluntary sodomy” as a first-degree misdemeanor with a penalty of up to one-year imprisonment.
Panic in LGBTQ+ Community
The Anti Homosexuality Bill 2024 has raised anxiety levels in the LGBTQ+ community since its introduction by Rep. Johnson N. Williams of River Gee County.
A community that is rapidly growing.
There is no verifiable data on the population of Liberia’s LGBTQ+ population. But in a recent interview with journalRAGE, the program manager of the National AIDS Control Program at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jonathan Flomo, said there are about 70,000 men who sleep with men. The numbers were culled from the Integrated Behavioural and Biological Surveillance Survey (IBBSS) of 2018.
Baba Jones, 36, a gay man whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says he sees the proposed Bill as an attempt to rid the country of LGBTQ+ people.
“I think they finally want to get rid of us in this country,” says Jones, who is an accountant. “We go to school, get an education, pay our taxes and yet they want to harass us.Why are they always targeting us as if we are the cause of Liberia’s problem?”
Other members of the LGBTQ+ community have similar concerns–including Imelda Johnson, a transwoman who sells in Ma Juah Market.
“If I had money and a visa for any white man country, I would be on the next available flight out of Liberia.”
Media Institutions Targeted
The Anti Homosexuality Bill 2024 is not only targeting the LGBTQ+ community, but also media institutions that cover sexual minorities.
Section 14.89 of the proposed Bill calls for imprisonment for anyone or institution that seeks to broadcast or write on queer issues in the country.
“A person who promotes homsexuality commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years.” Furthermore, the Bill stated, if the offence is committed by a registered entity, they shall be fined One Million Liberian Dollars with a suspension or cancellation of their license.
Responding to the proposed Bill, the secretary-general of the Reporters Association of Liberia, Bobby Tingban, says the organization does not see it as targeting journalists and media institutions.
“The bill is trying to prevent an illegal act. It is wrong to get involved with homosexuality across the country.”
But not every media institution shares the view of the Reporters Association of Liberia.
The Liberian Health and Rights Journalists Network, a member of the LIPRIDE coalition, says the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2024 is not only targeting sexual minorities but also people who are trying to improve the health rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It creates an environment in Liberia that’s not enabling,” a spokesperson for the organization said in an interview with journalRAGE. “Liberia is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights–this is a witch hunt to target a particular community using the homophobic environment to target certain people.”
He said actors in the Liberian human rights ecosystem should not remain reticent on the matter.
“The INCHR [Independent National Commission on Human Rights] needs to come up with a statement as this is very concerning. This should also be the concern of human rights defenders because it might put Liberia backward when it comes to human rights.
According to the spokesperson of the Liberian Health and Rights Journalists Network, the proposed Bill from Rep. Williams of River Gee County is seeking to box human rights actors.
“The health and human rights of everyone will be targeted and the gains made in different areas, especially the national HIV response, will be eroded.” He called for the intervention of internal and external partners.
“LGBTQ+ people are who they are. You can’t criminalize people for being who they are.
