Ghulam Nabi Azad India's Minister of Health is under fire after telling rural Indian leaders that sex between two men is “completely unnatural,” and that homosexuality is a "disease." “Unfortunately, there is this disease in the world and in this country where men are having sex with other men, which is completely unnatural and shouldn’t happen, but it does,” Ghulam Nabi Azad, India's minister for health and family welfare said at a conference addressing HIV. His remarks, part of a speech made in a mixture of Hindi and English, were videotaped and have been widely distributed by Indian media, sparking outrage. “Not only did he make an uninformed comment, he also did it at an inappropriate time and place,” said the executive director of the Naz Foundation, a nonprofit group in India that fights the spread of HIV. From neighbouring Nepal, Babu Sunil Pant, that country's openly gay MP, says the comments show that Azad is a sociopath. "(Azad) should be treated before he can serve as the health minister of India," Pant said. In July 2009, New Delhi’s High Court decriminalized homosexuality and gays and lesbians are slowly gaining acceptance in some parts of India.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 7th July 2011 - 1:14am