No, it’s not Barack Obama this time, but Liberian President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who sat down with former war puppet Tony
Blair for a wide-ranging
interview on the aims of Blair’s post-post-colonial
Africa Governance Initiative:

The Nobel peace prize winner and president
of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has defended a law
that criminalises homosexual acts, saying: “We like ourselves just
the way we are.”

In a joint interview with Tony Blair, who was left looking
visibly uncomfortable by her remarks, Sirleaf told the Guardian:
“We’ve got certain traditional values in our society that we would
like to preserve.”

Liberian legislation classes “voluntary sodomy” as a
misdemeanour punishable by up to one year in prison, but two new
bills have been proposed that would target homosexuality with much
tougher sentences.

Blair, on a visit to Liberia in his capacity as the founder of
the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), a charity
that aims to strengthen African governments, refused to comment on
Sirleaf’s remarks.

When asked whether good governance and human
rights went hand in hand, the British former prime minister
said: “I’m not giving you an answer on it.”

“One of the advantages of doing what I do now is I can choose
the issues I get into and the issues I don’t. For us, the
priorities are around power, roads, jobs delivery,” he said.

With Sirleaf sitting to his left, Blair refused to give any
advice on gay rights reforms. He let out a stifled chuckle after
Sirleaf interrupted him to make it clear that Blair and his staff
were only allowed to do what she said they could. “AGI Liberia has
specific terms of reference…that’s all we require of them,” she
said, crossing her arms and leaning back.

Yet again, Brave Sir
Tony finds himself unfairly suffering the blowback of
an American’s cowboy antics, this time those of U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, whose boss won the Noble Prize for
Drone
Murder Peace: 

The gay rights debate erupted in Liberia after Clinton announced
in December that America’s foreign aid budget would promote
the protection of gay rights, prompting speculation that funds
would be tied to rights records.

The announcement brought unprecedented attention to
homosexuality in a country where until recently gay people and
lesbians lived in secret, but generally not in fear for their
lives. Since Clinton’s remarks, Liberian newspapers have published
numerous articles and editorials describing homosexuality as
“desecrating”, “abusive” and an “abomination.”

Many news cycles ago, when Rick Perry slammed the Obama
administration for supporting special rights for foreign gays (such
as the right not to be executed for liking people with similar
private parts), Jacob Sullum
wrote: “If it were up to me, the foreign aid budget would start
at zero and stay there. But whether or not it is a justifiable use
of taxpayers’ money, Obama’s initiative is not about ‘promoting a
lifestyle’ or ‘promoting special rights for gays’—unless you think
life and liberty are special rights.”