Sierra Leone
Male same-sex sexual activity is illegal, punishable with life imprisonment, and there is no protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Legislation
Male to male relationships: Not legal
Punishments for male to male relationships: Imprisonment of 10 years or more
Female to female relationships: Legal
Marriage and substitutes for marriage: No law
More on the law of Sierra Leone at ilga.org
Legal incidents and social climate
Members of the LGBT community in Sierra Leone began to campaign for LGBT rights in 2002, with the creation of the Dignity Association. While the government tolerated its existence, the organization and its members are frequent targets of harassment, even murder.
In 2004, Fanny Ann Eddy, the founder of the first LGBT-rights organization in Sierra Leone, was brutally murdered. While working in her office, several men broke in, raped and murdered her. Many human rights activists believed that she was targeted for being gay and her work on behalf of the rights of women and the LGBT community. (Source: ilga.org)
Social attitudes and mores tend to be hostile to homosexuality and cross-dressing. As a result, individual politicians, political parties and other political organizations in Sierra Leone avoid making public statements on LGBT rights or come out in opposition to them on religious grounds.
LGBT organizations/networks
None found as of July 2012
Conventions
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Publications
