Conservative Senator Roberto Gerlein on
Tuesday condemned gay sex, calling it “repulsive.”
Gerlein made his comments in Congress
as it debates a proposed bill which would legalize gay marriage.
Sex between men is “dirty, repulsive.
It is sex that deserves condemnation and is excremental sex,”
Gerlein told colleagues.
The 73-year-old senator's rant lasted
nearly 20 minutes, according to the weekly Semana.
“The homosexual has a smaller
hypothalamus, it is a condition which comes imprinted in the biology
of the homosexual. He has no way to remove it. He can visit all the
doctors and will still have no way to take it out. It is unfortunate
that nature imposes this burden on someone, because being a
homosexual is a burden,” Gerlein said, then added that he's not
anti-gay. (Video of Gerlein's rant is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
The bill's author, Senator Armando
Benedetti, said he found the comments to be “xenophobic.”
Gerlein, a member of the Conservative
Party, is the most senior member of the Colombia Senate, having been
first elected in 1974.
If approved, Colombia would become the
second Latin American nation behind Argentina to enact marriage
equality. However, unlike Argentina's law, Benedetti's proposal does
not give married gay couples the right to adopt children.
Further discussions on the bill were
postponed until next week.