Liberia's President Vows Not To Decriminalize Homosexuality

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." In a joint interview with Tony Blair, who was left looking visibly uncomfortable by her remarks, Sirleaf told the Guardian: "We've got certain traditional values in our society that we would like to preserve." Liberian legislation classes "voluntary sodomy" as a misdemeanour punishable by up to one year in prison, but two new bills have been proposed that would target homosexuality with much tougher sentences.

Think Progress has the clip.

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