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Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, deviated slightly from his prepared speech during his Monday evening address to the United Nations General Assembly, to attack homosexuality.
And what did he say? “We are not gays,” he screamed.
The 91-year-old leader made the comment as he criticised Western nations of “double standards” and attempts to “prescribe ‘new rights’ that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs.”
Zimbabwe is one of the leading countries in Africa strongly against LGBT rights. In 2013 Mugabe described homosexuals as “worse than pigs, goats and birds.”
Mugabe claimed the UN Human Rights charter did not give states “the right to some to sit in judgement over others”.
His words: “In that regard, we reject the politicisation 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! Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not.”