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Mugabe shocks UN: ‘We are not gays’
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe shocked the UN General Assembly on Monday (28 September) when he announced he and his countrymen ‘are not gays.’
The 91-year-old, who once said LGBTI people are ‘worse than dogs and pigs,’ used his evening address as an opportunity to rant against ‘new rights.’
‘Respecting and upholding human rights is the obligation of all states and is enshrined in the United Nations charter,’ he told world leaders in New York, including US President Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
‘Nowhere does the charter abrogate the right of some to sit in judgment over others.’
Mugabe continued: ‘In that regard, we reject the politicization of this important issue and the application of double standards to victimize those who dare think and act independently of the self-anointed prefects of our time.
‘We equally reject attempts to prescribe “new rights” that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs.’
‘We are not gays,’ he then said matter of factly to a mixture of gasps, laughter and applause.
‘Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification and double-standards will not.’
Gay sex is illegal in Zimbabwe and laws passed in 2006 criminalize any actions perceived as homosexual – it is a criminal offense for two people of the same sex to hold hands, hug, or kiss in the African country.
Mugabe’s comments a day after the Saudi foreign minister told the UN his country had the right not to follow any ‘deviations’ in its definition of sex and family.
Watch the speech below:
The post Mugabe shocks UN: ‘We are not gays’ appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/mugabe-shocks-un-we-are-not-gays/
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