A Liberian medical doctor who has made public his sexuality as a gay has reportedly fled the country following physical attacks of homophobic violence against him.
The doctor who begs for anonymity said, he was cohered to leave Liberia following multiple assaults and raining threats against him and his family due to his open declaration of his sexuality.
According to him, while in Liberia he was on many occasions heckled, scorned, taunted and gay-bashed.
He said as an employee of one of the hospitals operating in rural Liberia, he was forced to leave the job due to his workmates throwing jibes at him daily.
The gay Liberian Medical Doctor described his experience in Liberia as “pathetic and highly disdainful,” adding that, there must be something done by a central government that will be guaranteed the rights of Liberians involved in different sexual behaviors.
“There is such homophobic hatred and intense violence against openly homosexual Liberian men. Once we come out openly, we are scorned by family members, despised, discriminated against at our workplace and even sacked. Worst of it all, we are murdered with impunity and yet the government through its justice system deliberately refuses to protect us and give us justice,” the Doctor told this paper via telephone conversation over the weekend.
Recently, a wedding believed to be organized by a group of gay- men in Monrovia who were heavily interrupted by angry community dwellers (non-homosexuals).
Those partaking in the ‘supposed gay weeding’ were said to be bashed at and chased out of the area where the event was supposedly taking place.
In 2012, the Liberian Senate passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Liberia but former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as a result of pressure from the international gay community reneged to pass on the Senate decision.
Addressing herself to the Senate decision at the time, the former Liberian leader said, there was no law restricting Liberians from being homosexuals and that it was a matter of choice.
Liberia continues to be highly conservative and one of the most dangerous regions to live as a homosexual, an international human right group declared.
A 2016 US Department of State Human Rights Report highlighted the arrest of several individuals who were accused of sodomy, one of whom had been arrested after reporting to the police that he had been robbed.
Source: Smart News
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