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.