MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — A Liberian senator says the Senate will consider a bill to strengthen the West African nation’s existing anti-gay laws.
Senator Joseph Nagbe, chair of the Judicial Committee, says the bill will appear before Senate on Thursday.
Liberia’s former first lady, Senator Jewel Taylor, submitted a bill last week that would prohibit same-sex marriage and make homosexuality a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The current law considers gay relationships a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a punishment of up to a year in prison.
If passed by the Senate, the strengthened bill would then go the House and then the president.
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a recent Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said she will not sign any such bill into law.
