New UN President Says Being Gay 'Not Acceptable'

New UN President Says Being Gay 'Not Acceptable'
By Carlos Santoscoy
Published: September 23, 2009

The new president of the United Nations has called being gay “not acceptable.”

Ali Abdussalam Treki, of Libya, opened the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly Friday with a press conference where he answered questions on a variety of topics.

When asked about a UN resolution that calls for the universal decriminalization of being gay, Treki called the matter “very sensitive.”

“[T]hat matter is very sensitive, very touchy,” Treki said. “As a Muslim, I am not in favor of it … it is not accepted by the majority of countries. My opinion is not in favor of this matter at all. I think it's not really acceptable by our religion, our tradition”

“It is not acceptable in the majority of the world. And there are some countries that allow that, thinking it is a kind of democracy … I think it is not,” he added.

The resolution eventually was approved during last year's session but proved controversial. President Obama reversed course on the issue and backed the resolution. But Vatican officials denounced it, saying it might promote gay marriage.

The resolution, sponsored by France and the Netherlands, met with strong resistance from a group of Arab leaders who challenged it with a statement condemning being gay. The anti-gay resolution failed but attracted 60 signatures on its first day. The Arab-backed statement decried the decriminalization of being gay because it might lead to “the social normalization, and possibly the legitimization, of many deplorable acts including pedophilia.”

Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee, blasted the new president's comments.

“The anti-gay bigotry spewed by this Qaddafi shill demonstrates once again that the UN has been hijacked by advocates of hate and intolerance,” she said.