Turns out right-wing Western pundits aren't the only ones spouting horrific remarks when it comes to homosexuality.
As The Guardian is reporting, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an influential cleric and an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, referred to homosexuals as inferior to dogs and pigs in a new speech.
"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," Javadi-Amoli said, according to The Guardian's translation of a report by the Iranian news website Khabaronline. "Problems like AIDS did not exist before."
Reportedly citing the Koran's verses about the prophet Lot, who some scholars say was punished by god for sodomy, Javadi-Amoli continued, "Even animals...dogs and pigs don't engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet [western politicians] pass laws in favor of them in their parliaments."
The report also points to a Facebook campaign aimed to highlight the discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Iran, where homosexuals can be sentenced to death. At present, that Facebook page, titled "We Are Everywhere," has over 6,000 likes.
"As a gay person, my biggest problem in Iran is that I cannot be my real self," an Iranian gay man, only identified as Mehdi, is quoted in a September 2011 report by The Guardian as saying in one post. "I always have to play a role. I always have to suppress my own existence and part of my identity and hide myself in fear from the society and potential problems that I might face."
Take a look at some other anti-LGBT comments made by rightwing pundits below:
