Wed. March 21, 2012
Monrovia, Liberia -
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has announced that she has no intention of making homosexuality legal.
Sirleaf received the Peace Prize in 2011 for her "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights," but she is disinterested in the rights of gays and lesbians in her country.
"We've got certain traditional values in our society that we'd like to preserve," she told former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a televised interview. "We like ourselves just the way we are."
Sodomy is currently illegal in Liberia and is punishable by one year in prison. Last month, Liberian politician Jewel Taylor proposed a new law that would increase the punishment for homosexuality to ten years in prison.
Sirleaf is the only elected female head of state in Africa.
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