Activists Pressure Liberian Leader Over Gay Bill

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Gay rights activists are starting an online petition calling for Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to lose her Nobel Peace Prize if she signs into law a bill criminalizing same-sex marriage.

Liberia's Senate passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Monday.

Coenie Kukkuk of Mr. Gay South Africa said Wednesday the group wants to hold Johnson Sirleaf to a promise she made to veto any bill on homosexuality, be it legalizing it or toughening laws against it.

He says the group will campaign for her 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked and the prize money repaid if she signs the bill.

While Sirleaf's position on the bill wasn't immediately clear, she has defended another Liberian law making homosexual sex a crime, as it is across most of Africa.