A Sierra Leonean athlete, Georgiana Sesay who is currently taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, may likely face arrest and prosecution if she returns to Sierra Leone after the Games because she now stands accused of being a lesbian.
Georgiana Sesay, who has been hiding her sexuality, loses her guard on the eve of her departure for France when her alleged girlfriend, Aminata J. Sesay who is also an athlete, threw a birthday party at her home where she proposed to her. At the party which turned into an engagement, she and her girlfriend were photographed kissing and engaging in some compromising acts which were interpreted as acts of lesbianism when the photographs went viral on some social media platforms.
Luckily for Georgiana Sesay, by the time a mob of community youths stormed her house, she had already left Sierra Leone for France. But her girlfriend, Aminata J. Sesay, was not so lucky as she was beaten to the point of death by a mob of irate youths who accused her of being a lesbian and set her house ablaze.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Sierra Leone face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT citizens. Female same-sex sexual activity, whether in public or private, is illegal in Sierra Leone and carries a possible penalty of life imprisonment with hard labour.
The few Sierra Leoneans who admitted knowing someone they believed to be lesbian said that in no case would anyone openly admit it, and if they did, they would be shunned by their families and friends and possibly threatened by community members.
In 2004, Fannyann Eddy was murdered. She was the founder of the first LGBT rights organization in Sierra Leone, the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association. According to initial reports, several men brutally raped and murdered her at her office. Many human rights activists believed that she was targeted for being gay and because of her work on behalf of women and the LGBT community.
In the case of Georgiana Sesay, reports say the Sierra Leone Police are waiting for her return to question her and possibly prosecute her for being a lesbian.