Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sept. 24 that there are no homosexuals in Iran.

Answering students’ questions at Columbia University in New York City, Ahmadinejad said: “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon; I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”

The audience laughed and booed.

Arsham Parsi, head of the Toronto-based IRanian Queer Organization (IRQO), posted a reply online which said: “Mr. Ahmadi Nejad, please tell me ... who I am?”

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Executive Director Paula Ettelbrick commented: “The Iranian president’s stark denial of our reality reflects his government’s ongoing refusal to recognize the basic human rights of LGBT people. IGLHRC and other human rights organizations have documented widespread and systematic violations of the rights of members of the ... LGBT community in Iran.”

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said, “Today’s assertions ... would be simply absurd were it not for the fact that international human rights watchers have long documented some of the most horrific acts of persecution and violence committed against gay people in Iran.

These acts of terror have included incarcerations, beatings and brutal executions. Ahmadinejad’s denial that there are gay people in Iran shows the extent to which he devalues the lives of the many citizens his government has and continues to violate.”

Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program, called Ahmadinejad’s denial of the existence of Iranian gays “a sick joke,” affirming that Iran tortures gays and that the penal code punishes sex between men with the death penalty.

The Columbia Queer Alliance, however, had a different take on the matter.

On Sept. 23, the alliance’s executive board issued a letter to its members which contained this admonition: “[W]e would like to strongly caution media and campus organizations against the use of such words as ‘gay,’ ‘lesbian,’ or ‘homosexual’ to describe people in Iran who engage in same-sex practices and feel same-sex desire. The construction of sexual orientation as a social and political identity and all of the vocabulary therein is a Western cultural idiom. As such, scholars of sexuality in the Middle East generally use the terms ‘same-sex practices’ and ‘same-sex desire’ in recognition of the inadequacy of Western terminology.”

Two gay men targeted by anti-gay death squads in Iraq were granted asylum in the United Kingdom in late September.

Ibaa, 30, had worked as a cultural-programs officer for the British Council in Baghdad. Haider, 29, was a doctor at Baghdad’s Al-Nu’man General Hospital.

Both had received death threats from anti-gay militias, and a grenade had been thrown through a window at Ibaa’s home. Ibaa’s partner, Ali, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in April 2004 by men suspected of belonging to the Badr militia, according to the London-based organization Iraqi LGBT.

“No words can express how relieved and grateful I feel,” Ibaa said after the asylum ruling. “All the years of fear are over.”

Said Haider: “When I heard that I had won my appeal, I cried. ... The terrible past was over. This is an opportunity to start my life all over again.”

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, “militant death squads” have executed “hundreds” of people solely for being gay, according to Iraqi LGBT.

The United Kingdom’s Department for Children, Schools and Families has published a guidebook on “Preventing and Responding to Homophobic Bullying in Schools.”

The 140-page book, issued Sept. 21, provides principals, teachers and staff with practical information and lesson plans to help them deal with and eliminate anti-gay abuse.

According to research by Stonewall, the UK’s leading gay-lobby group, almost two-thirds of young gay people have experienced anti-gay bullying and 97 percent of gay pupils report regularly hearing homophobic insults at school, a third of the time from adults.

The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association held its 10th World Championship in Buenos Aires Sept. 23-29, drawing 500 soccer players from 28 teams around the world.

Argentina’s Los Dogos defeated reigning champ Stonewall Football Club from London in a 1-0 shutout Sept. 29 to capture the gay soccer world cup.

It was the first time the event, which received substantial support from the Argentine Football Association, had been held in Latin America.

Other sponsors included Delta Air Lines, Manhunt.net and the local gay clubs Amerika and Titanic.

Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev has thrown his support behind a project to craft anti-discrimination legislation.

Government ministries will work with the nongovernmental Antidiscrimination Coalition to write and pass legislation, raise awareness, train public officials and collaborate with the media.

The gay group Information Centre GenderDoc-M is a member of the coalition, along with groups representing youth, Roma (Gypsies) and other minorities.

Members of the European Pride Organisers Association, meeting in Stockholm Sept. 20-23, selected Warsaw as the site for the 2010 EuroPride parade – the first time the event will be staged in Eastern Europe.

The association said the move “sends a strong signal to a part of the continent where equal rights and acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders are still minimal.”

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, when he was mayor of Warsaw, tried to ban the city’s Pride march and ordered police to halt it, saying he opposed “propagating gay orientation.”

Just prior to this year’s parade, which drew 20,000 marchers, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Kaczynski’s attempt to ban the 2005 parade had violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

Assistance: Bill Kelley