The US State Department notes that the current law on ‘voluntary sodomy’ is rarely enforced. However, incidents of harassment and violence have been reported in the country. For example, in 2017, it was reported that there continued to be instances of arbitrary arrest and detention of individuals suspected of engaging in same-sex sexual conduct.  There have been no reported cases of convictions under the Voluntary Sodomy provision of the Penal Code, the accused are often held in jail, without trial, for prolonged periods of time. Additionally, the police are said to have verbally and physically abused detainees and confiscated their cell phones, as well as exorting LGBT individuals while threatening to prosecute or out them to their families and the public.

Human Dignity Trust refering to a 2016 report by the US Department of State Human Rights Report on Liberia stated that in October 2016, an LGBT organisation reported that several individuals were arrested and accused of sodomy, one of whom had been arrested after reporting to the police that he had been robbed.  On 12 October 2013, according to the US State Department report, two men in Monrovia were attacked by a mob on suspicion of ‘being gay’. Despite attempts to report the incident to the police, the two men continued to face threats and ultimately fled their homes. 

More recent attacks on the LGBTI community have been reported in 2020 to include an attack on a female who played soccer on the female team, over the radio by a presenter. This resulted in one of the officials of the Liberia Football Association putting out a statement to the effect that steps will be taken to remove all lesbians from the soccer team and the institution as a whole.   

More generally, Liberian culture including country leaders remains strongly opposed to homosexuality, thereby forcing LGBTI persons to conceal their sexual identity, according to Human Dignity Trust. As Human Rights Watch explains in its 2013 report entitled “It’s Nature, not a Crime,” homosexuality is generally perceived as ‘un-African’ and immoral, and often imputed to Western behaviour espoused by the country’s privileged elite. Anti-gay sentiment and hostility towards LGBTI populations have been fuelled by both media and political discourse in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch.

Police complicity coupled with the existence of the law discourages LGBT victims of hate crimes from coming forward to report incidents to the police because of concerns of re-victimization and possible arrest on homosexuality-related charges notes UNDP, OHCHR (2020).

Due to little tolerance for the work that LGBT activists do, application for registration of LGBT organisations have met with rejections. One such incident was reported –  In November 2016, the Trans Network of Liberia (TNOL) sought registration as a legal entity with the Liberia Business Registry but was refused. UNDP, OHCHR report of 2020 states that rejection of legal recognition and/or registration of LGBTI organisations by the Business Registry is on grounds of the names and objectives of the organizations’ being “legally unacceptable” in Liberia.   

Moab v Gonzales, 500 F.3d 656 (7th Cir. Sept. 13 2007): although the ruling focuses on credibility, the US Court of Appeals supported a finding that a homosexual man in Liberia faced a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of his sexual orientation, after having suffered beatings in his country of origin.