no nation for gays

By Daniel Somerville

July 26, 2004: Today is National Day in Liberia. The war torn West African country is engaged in a process of reconstruction and resettlement but same-sex issues are not yet on the agenda and perhaps need to be.

There is conflicting information available on the Internet when it comes to homosexuality in Liberia. Some sources claim that homosexuality is legal - others that it is not. Our best information suggests that homosexuality is illegal and that Liberian society, as with many societies in Africa sees homosexuality as a social taboo.

Liberia was founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century and is therefore one of the continent's oldest independent states. However, from hopeful beginnings the country has suffered a brutal civil war which ended only recently. Now in a state of reconstruction, preparing itself for the resettlement of thousands of refugees and facing a potentially devastating Aids epidemic, Liberia is not a friendly environment for gays and lesbians. Sexual violence during the civil war has contributed to high rates of HIV infection, however condom distribution and peer based safer sex information which has only begun to be implemented during 2004 is too little too late for many. In prisons for example, the issue of condoms appears not to have been raised, with other more urgent reforms needed to the prison system first. The distribution of information on same-sex safer sex is also yet to emerge and can only happen when homosexuality is decriminalised or when some wider public discourse on the issue is made possible.

In a recent report on same sex prostitution in Ghana, published on Ghanaweb.com a bi-sexual Liberian man who claims to only engage in prostitution for money is reported to have said: "There are a lot of refugees involved in this due to financial problems, and all these people need to be treated when they are sick. How can they come if the law is against them?" Homosexuality is also illegal in Ghana and other West African countries that are now home to many impoverished Liberian gays and bisexuals - with their status as men who have sex with men criminalised, access to proper health care is made difficult and the possibility of them infecting both their male clients and their female and male partners, as well as the spouses of their clients, is high. The option of returning to Liberia holds little hope of a better life both economically and in respect of their rights as homosexuals. However another refugee quoted in the Ghanaweb.com report seems to imply that while his status as a refugee is more important than his status as a gay man in Ghana, back home in Liberia he is recognised as gay: "Since I am a refugee, no one recognises me as a gay. All my people from Liberia like me as a gay."