At its Thursday session the chamber voted unanimously to approve the Bill which makes homosexual marriage a second degree felony.Essentially, the Senate, amended the existing the Domestic Relations Law which was silent about same-sex marriage to insert a clause explicitly forbidding same-sex marriage.The proposed amendment, according to Senator Joseph Nagbe of Sinoe County who read out the Bill, does not contravene any portion of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.Bong County Senator Jewel Howard Taylor who introduced the Bill, observed that the piece of legislation will strengthen marriage between a man and woman.Madame Taylor, a wife to Charles Taylor and a former First lady of Liberia, clarified that the Bill was not anti-gay like the one being currently debated in the lower House of Representatives “because there are people who are homosexual that continue to do whatever they want to do.“My Bill seeks to ensure that people of the same sex under our law should not be allowed to get married.”This Bill, like all others to be enacted into law, has to be endorsed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf before it becomes law.Great Britain and the United States have threatened to withhold assistance to countries that criminalise same-sex marriage, but most citizens of Liberia which where tradition is deep-rooted are against same sex marriage.
