September 25, 2007 | Sex & Society

Iran: happily homo free since 2005

"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country." So claimed the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during yesterday's speaking engagement at Columbia University. "In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it."

Perhaps he forgot the two young men hanged for being gay back in 2005. Both were in their teens, but old enough, according to Islamic Sharia law, to be put to death for the "heinous" sin of homosexuality.

Joe Solmonese, from the Human Rights Campaign, said he found Ahmadinejad's claims to be laughable.

Today’s assertions by President Ahmadinejad that there are no homosexuals in Iran would be simply absurd were it not for the fact that international human rights watchers have long documented some of the most horrific acts of persecution and violence committed against gay people in Iran. These acts of terror have included incarcerations, beatings, and brutal executions. Ahmadinejad’s denial that there are gay people in Iran shows the extent to which he devalues the lives of the many citizens his government has and continues to violate.

At least the university president got off a few shots at Ahmadinejad's expense, calling him a "petty, cruel dictator," and either "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated." Snap!