Liberia is well noted for making rare history in Africa. It is the first country on the continent that announced independence without being colonized; it elected the first female President in Africa, and allowed a high school dropout football star to become a presidential candidate.
Now the country is on the way to holding Africa spellbound with campaign emerging, for the legalization of gay and lesbian rights, barely a month after western countries, particularly Britain and the United States announced that aid to Africa would be tied to African governments legalizing homosexuality or same sex marriage, a call that has received unreserved condemnations from several governments in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana.
However, this paper has received reports that several homosexual foundations based in Europe and the United States led by the Californian-based 'Foundation for the Protection of Gay Rights' are offering US$4 million to members of the Liberian Legislature to introduce a gay rights bill for enactment. One million of this amount has reportedly been disbursed among some members of the 53rd Legislature in Monrovia.
As a trial balloon effort or an attempt to test public reaction on the current campaign, University of Liberia student Leroy Archie Pon-Pon, who spearheaded the burning of the Norwegian Flag recently in Monrovia, has maintained that homosexuality is already being secretly practiced here. "Gays and lesbians have rights like other Liberian citizens, and those rights must be protected", Pon-pon emphasized in a news conference, promising to introduce a bill shortly in the House, seeking the legalization of homosexuality in Liberia.
From all indications, the gay rights campaign is far beyond Pon-Pon; he is being used as a foot soldier to do the dirty work of belly-driven politicians, who care very little, if any all, for the future of our youthful generation.
Homosexuality is not only desecrating, abusive and exploitative, particularly in a poverty-ridden society like Liberia, but un-African. Those officials of government, including members of the Legislature behind the campaign need to rethink their action because posterity is watching them keenly.
It is time that we as a nation stand up to the West and say No to making homosexuality as a precondition to receiving assistance. Liberians need to reflect why the call is being made to Africa. This is a new form of subjugation that Africa should resist with unison.
The gay rights campaign by the West in exchange for aid is the first test before President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her second term, specifically coming from President Barrack Obama. The temptation to give in easily for badly needed assistance is high, particularly now that the Executive has a firm grip on the Legislature by winning both the speaker post in the House of Representatives and the Pro-temp seat in the Senate, respectively.
Morality is being undermined in our country at the highest level. It is about time that civil society organizations, chiefs, elders, religious and traditional leaders speak out and make their position known; no time to sit on the fence and watch because the future of our country is at stake.
Even the West now constraining Africa to adapt the practice had has various forms of opposition in their respective societies, sometimes which were acrimonious and defiant. Just image a gay military, a gay police force, a gay Supreme Court bench and a gay cabinet in Liberia. Where does morality and family value fit in our next generation, if we were to legalize homosexuality here? This is something that we must think about critically.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has spoken about this, from his latest book - "This is a matter of great justice. The struggle against apartheid in South Africa was supported by people the world over, because black people were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about - our very skin. It is the same with sexual orientation. It is a given. I could not have fought against the discrimination of apartheid and not also fight against the discrimination that homosexuals endure, even in our churches and faith groups." (page 54) and - "Equally, I cannot keep quiet while people are being penalized for something about which they can do nothing - their sexuality. To discriminate against our sisters and brothers who are lesbian or gay on grounds of their sexual orientation for me is as totally unacceptable and unjust as apartheid ever was." (page 55) Great words from a good man.
Hey Othello, you're a seasoned journalist, why do you publish these fantasies and risk your reputation? The so-called "Foundation for the Protection of Gay Rights" does not even exist, and you are smart enough to do some internet research and know it. And saying that they pay 4 mUS - wow, that's creative. Given that you say they have been doing this in several countries, they appear to be spending tens, if not hundreds of millions of US on this in Africa - and that without any noticeable effect. Did you have any other funny dreams recently?
Homosexuality is more of physiology than biology. Color of skin is completely Biology dependence. Hence, fighting for a black man's right to live willfully & peacefully in every society is not the same thing as fighting for gay&lesbian right to wed. These are two distinct subjects which need to be addressed separately! Example, a person can be coached/mentored to be a homosexual/heterosexual (I have friends who were straight but are gay or gay but now straight) but a person cannot be mentored to be black. Your race is biologically determined. It's not only evil or illegal to discriminate base on biology, it's immoral! Obama and his administration need to stop the hypocrisy. Obama himself is ambivalent about the subject so I do not understand why he is obliging others to do that which he himself is not certain about, which is to legalize gay union, calling it marriage. I have nothing against homosexuals, they are among some of the nicest and generous people I know. I concord with Mrs Clinton that gay right is human right in the sense that gays & lesbians are like we all, humans! Nevertheless, the right to marriage is reserved for people of opposite sex: male & female! Everyone is free to play the game of soccer as one pleases but to change the rules in one's favor is not only a cheating but it is morally wrong. Likewise, people are free or should be free to be homo or heterosexual but to alter or change the definition of marriage is not only the wrong thing to do but a morally irresponsible thing to do. My brothers and sisters, lets not sell the only thing we have, our moral integrity for some peripheral gain. Remember, money comes and goes but the decisions we make last forever!! Message to Obama... The right to live, to have clean drinking water, and a shelter is a basic human right, which if withhold can have a detrimental effects on society. Which is morally wrong, withholding aid from millions of hungry children because of one's political ideology or refusing to legalize gay marriage based on one's moral integrity?
@ Chris: Personal experiences cannot systemtically gather data and tend to not reveal the full truth. Your experience may be due to the fact that people are not necessarily homo or hetero, but there is a lot in between, and often people shift between the two. True, mainstream scientific opinion nowaydays accords a role to socialization in becoming homosexual. But the great majority of cases is considered to result from genetic factors, mother stress levels during pregnancy, or a combination of both - meaning that people are born with a homosexual or bisexual orientation and cannot change it, no matter how much they are mentored or how much they try.