Sachinism Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 India's health minister has sparked a furious row over comments in which he described homosexuality as a "disease". Ghulam Nabi Azad told a conference on HIV/Aids that gay sex was "unnatural". One leading Aids campaigner said the minister was "living on another planet". The UN has also condemned his comments. Gay sex was decriminalised in the country in a landmark judgement in 2009 but anti-homosexual discrimination remains widespread. Mr Azad told the meeting in Delhi on Monday that homosexuality "is a disease which has come from other countries. "Even though it is unnatural, it exists in our country and is now fast-spreading, making it tough to detect," he said. He said men having sex with other men "should not happen, but does". He also said that "though it is easy to find women sex workers and educate them on sex, it is a challenge to identify men having sex with men". Continue reading the main story Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi were also present at the conference, along with a raft of government ministers, but had reportedly left before Mr Azad made his comments. 'Unacceptable' Anand Grover, United Nations special rapporteur on health, criticised Mr Azad's comments. "It's unfortunate, regrettable and totally unacceptable that a minister of his stature... is still insensitive to a vulnerable groups such as MSM [men who have sex with men]," the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted him as saying. Anjali Gopalan, who heads leading HIV/Aids campaign group the Naz Foundation, told the BBC's Jill McGivering she was "horrified" by the minister's remarks. "He's living on another planet - either he's very ill informed or he's speaking to a very narrow constituency of his own," she said. "He was addressing officials from across the country and this was a golden opportunity to deal with discrimination. Instead he let it slip through his fingers. I'm hoping it will not put us back another 10 years. "My blood pressure must have gone through the roof. I'm so angry, I can't put it into words. These guys shouldn't be in these positions." Gay rights activist celebrates ruling legalising homosexual sex in Calcutta, India on 2 July 2009 Gay sex is now legal but harassment and discrimination remain rife She added that as it was much easier for a man to infect a woman than a woman a man, and as it was common practice among female sex workers to use condoms, they were not the group most vulnerable to infection. "It's women who are in marriage who are more at risk because they cannot negotiate safer behaviour from their husbands who are infecting them," Ms Gopalan said. 'Not insulting' Gay rights activist Mohnish Kabir Malhotra said Mr Aazad should "apologise immediately" for his comments. "Homosexuality is very much a part of nature and it even finds references in religious texts. To call it unnatural is absurd," Malhotra told the AFP news agency. A health ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday that Mr Azad's quotes had been taken out of context and that when he spoke of disease, he was talking about Hiv/AIDS and not homosexuality. "He was not insulting anyone," Shefali Sharan told AFP. According to one estimate, some 8% of homosexual men in India are infected with HIV. There is an infection rate of under 1% in the general population. The 2009 court ruling overturned a 148-year-old colonial law which described a same-sex relationship as an "unnatural offence". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14024774 :facepalm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punjabi_khota Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 :facepalm: Welcome to 19th century, Mr. Azad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnterTheVoid Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Mr Azad was a mistake. Sorry, someone had to break it to him :hahaha: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Is Mr.Azad trying for the republican ticket for 2012? :dontknow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Foot in the mouth disease? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Outsider Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Foot in the mouth disease? That'll be foot fetish and not homosexuality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricket Tragic Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 :facepalm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganeshran Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Comments like these would be out of place even in a personal conversation. But to make them in the capacity of a health minister of the nation is absolutely absurd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowboysfan Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 there should be a rule that only actual doctors are made health ministers,these lallus are living in a different century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maniac Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Whoa at some of the Indian activists trying to be ubder-cool and aping the west with their reactions But the health minister did sound like a village idiot with his statements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vvvslaxman Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EuucivpXdI]YouTube - Drunk Man Tries To Kiss Ricky Ponting in India[/ame] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texy Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 how the hell did this guy become health minister?? O wait I forgot, Congress >> Quota >>> Minority Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kabira Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaiwala Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Did he give any explanation as to why this disease is highly prevalent among certain groups, like Pathans? :--D jk jk jk But yeah, major :facepalm: moment here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradman99 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Pretty funny a minister could be so stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaedrus Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Pretty funny a minister could be so stupid. not really. didnt expect anything else from these buffoons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuge Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Indian culture is to KISS HIM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariyam Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Was just looking this guy up on wiki to see what exactly are his educational/political credentials. Seems to be a good organizer. Here's something else in that article that caught my eye There are approximately 100 million gay, bisexual and transgender Indians where do they come up with this stuff? Thats one in every twelve Indians. Seems totally wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuge Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Dumb comments from Mr Azad . where do they come up with this stuff? Thats one in every twelve. Seems totally wrong Seriously ,without Census or a survey of that kind how is it possible to say there are these many people from LSBT community . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganeshran Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Most estimates suggest that, depending on one’s definition of homosexuality, between three percent and 15 percent of human beings are gay. Got this from a blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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