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Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (l.) talks Thursday to Juan Gonzalez and fellow journalist Amy Goodman (second from right).Here is some shocking news: There are, in fact, gays in Iran.This report comes directly from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last year famously claimed there are no homosexuals in his country.Questioned back then about his government's execution of gays, Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust denier and sworn enemy of Israel, denied homosexualitly even exists in Iran."We do not have this phenomenon," he declared.This week, Ahmadinejad finally conceded there "might be a few" gays in his country. Then he went on to blast homosexuality as an "unlikable and foreign act" that is illegal because it "shakes the foundations of society," "robs humanity" and "brings about disease."The Iranian leader made his stunning remarks in a 45-minute televised interview with myself and a fellow journalist for "Democracy Now," a morning news and public affairs show.The interview took place in a room on the top floor of a midtown hotel where the president and his ample entourage stayed during his visit to the UN General Assembly.The room was jammed with Ahmadinejad's aides. A pack of Iranian journalists filmed and taped us as we asked him questions.The president wore a gray suit and white, open-collared shirt and he began the interview with a short Muslim prayer. He spoke deliberately and in a low voice, sat with his hands folded in his lap, and flashed a wry smile whenever we asked an especially pointed question."It should be of no pride to American society to say they defend something like this [homosexuality]," Ahmadinejad said. "Just because some people want to get votes, they are willing to overlook every morality."We confronted him with photos of two Iranian teenagers who were hanged in 2005 for being gay, human rights groups say.Iranian law doesn't call for executing gays, Ahmadinejad said. "Either they were drug traffickers or they killed someone else."What about freedom of dissent in Iran? Why had his government stepped up arrests of students, teachers and other critics? Why is Iran one of the few countries in the world that still executes juveniles?"Compared to the rest of the region and to the United States, we have a small number of prisoners," he said. As for executing juveniles, "the legal age in Iran is different from yours," he said. "If a person who happens to be 17 years old and 9 months kills one of your relatives, would you just overlook that?"
By Juan Gonzalez
As in the days of Noah....
