Harper – A boy, believed to be a teenager in Harper, Maryland County, who is accused of being gay, has been posted on Facebook stark naked in a video.
The incident, which reportedly happened last week, went viral, garnering thousands of views on the social media platform.
The boy, Andrew, a resident of Pleebo whose name has been changed, was lured to the residence of the perpetrator in Harper following a brief interaction on Facebook.
According to Andrew, who struggled to explain himself amid a hail of thundering shouts and threats from people who had gathered to brutalize him, he was undressed by the perpetrator when he entered his bedroom.
“Da him [that’s him] who took off my clothes from on me,” said Andrew, who appeared to be under a great deal of duress as he was being recorded—naked—against his wishes. “He said I should come inside. I said, what am I coming inside for? He said enter inside. Da [that’s] how he started playing with me; da him who took [my] clothes from on me.”
Visibly distraught and in a state of fear from questions thrown at him while the cameras recorded, Andrew was asked by a voice in the video to bend over and spread the cheeks of his buttocks.
As he sought to do so, a shirtless individual sporting a Nigerian accent appeared from behind the camera with a stick in his hand. He looked around Andrew as someone shouted, “They ain’t tell you that in this house we can beat faggots?”
While he cried out, the main perpetrator said he lured Andrew to have him brutalized because they had done so in the past.
“My intention is, the last time someone came here and did the same thing to my proh (big brother figure), and we beat the person. We beat the hell out of the person.”
Pointing to the victim, he said he wanted to have him beaten because it was a hatched plan.
The LGBTQ+ community in Liberia continues to record instances of assault, harassment, and hate speech, according to the 2024 Independent National Commission on Human Rights report.
Just this year, the inaugural speech of the U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a series of transphobic attacks across the country.
In 2024, the caretaker of the house of former CDC Chairman Mulbah Morlu threatened to burn down the homes of persons suspected of being gay along Tubman Boulevard.
In May 2023, Dominic Bropleh (name changed to protect his identity) accused FHI360 of outing his health status when the organization plastered his face on flyers across the country as an HIV+ individual.
In May 2021, members of a community watch team beat three men on suspicion they were gay in the Gobachop community of Paynesville. According to two of the survivors, the community watch team members threatened and assaulted them, rendering one of their friends unconscious.
In June 2021, Nuchie Michael, a teenager and a student at the St. Matthew United Methodist School in New Kru Town, was expelled for cross-dressing.
In 2020, Cheeseman Cole, a disgraced ex-soldier from the Armed Forces of Liberia, was arrested for reportedly brutalizing 27 men suspected of being gay.
In November 2019, partygoers were stoned and beaten over suspicions they were attending a gay wedding at an event hosted by Population Services International (PSI).
In September 2018, invitees at a PSI event in Sinkor were attacked and severely brutalized.
Though identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender is not illegal in Liberia, it could spur violent attacks against a person who publicly does so.
In May 2020, fashion model Tarus Cole fled the country over remarks that “99% of Liberian men are gay.”
Liberia’s gay community saw a glimmer of hope that they might make progress in achieving rights in 2012 when Hillary Clinton, then U.S. Secretary of State, announced that “gay rights are human rights” and aid would be tied to how countries treat sexual minorities.
“…Being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary Clinton said.
That hope was soon dampened when President Sirleaf, in an interview with The Guardian, defended the current law that criminalizes homosexuality.
Then, Jewel Howard Taylor, former first lady, senator, and later vice president, introduced a bill to make homosexuality a first-degree felony. That bill did not pass.
Sirleaf later backpedaled on her earlier remarks in an interview alongside former Irish President Mary Robinson, saying, incorrectly, that no law criminalizes homosexuality in Liberia.
With U.S. President Donald Trump back in Washington for his second and final term, the high hopes of the LGBTQ+ community have dampened.
Liberian law criminalizes same-sex sexual acts. Articles 14.74, 14.79, and 50.7 of the Penal Code of 1976 consider “voluntary sodomy” a first-degree misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to one year’s imprisonment.
In 2024, Representative Johnson N. Williams of River Gee County introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Act, calling for harsher penalties against LGBTQ+ individuals and their allies, aligning Liberia with Uganda and other nations with strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Rights Commission Calls on Police to Intervene
While the video racks up thousands of views on social media, the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR) says it is alarmed over the barbarity seen in the video and has called upon the Liberia National Police to swiftly intervene and mitigate the situation.
“The Commission is deeply troubled by this inhumane and degrading treatment of a fellow citizen,” said Atty. Urias Teh Pour, Executive Director of the Independent National Commission on Human Rights.
“Regardless of our personal or cultural beliefs, every Liberian is protected under the Constitution and international human rights treaties to which Liberia is a signatory. No one deserves to be publicly assaulted or humiliated.”
Atty. Pour called on the police to seize the matter in order for justice to prevail.
“This is not only mob justice, it is torture, it is cruel, and it is illegal. No one, regardless of what they are accused of, should be subjected to such dehumanizing treatment.”
He further stated that the victim’s right to dignity was gravely violated by being stripped naked in front of the camera for the rest of the world to watch, and that his perpetrators had no proof that he was gay or engaged in same-sex sexual acts.
“The perpetrators’ actions were based on mere belief that the victim is gay. These are videos that state securities should go after and ensure that justice is served in favor of the victim.
“This is a wake-up call for our society. Human rights are not selective. You cannot call for rule of law while cheering mob violence.”
The spokesperson of the Liberia National Police, Cecelia Clarke, said the matter will be looked into by the force upon a review of the video.
Facebook Fails to Take Action?
As Andrew’s video, spread by Liberian social media blogs, racks up negative comments, concerns are mounting over the refusal of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to remove the video from across its platform.
The company, in its usual warnings on offensive content that contains violence and other forms of brutality, cautions all of its users to be wary of sharing.
When contacted, Meta did not reply.
In the past, and now, the social media platform continues to be the place where men suspected of being gay are regularly catfished.
In an October 2022 interview with journalRAGE, the company stated that it had made a massive investment of $5 billion in the issue of safety and security for its users.
“We regularly partner with experts to inform our approach to safety, and we have developed the LGBTQ+ Safety Hub—a resource for anyone seeking support and help for issues specifically related to online safety for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Emergency Convergence
While Andrew reels in pain from his ordeal at the hands of his perpetrators, the Liberia Initiative for the Promotion of Rights, Identity, Diversity and Equality said it has called for an emergency meeting to address the issue.
This story was funded by the European Union under the Liberia Media Empowerment Project (LMEP). Its contents are the sole responsibility of journalRAGE and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
