NEW YORK, September 25, 2007  –  The reference to there being no gays in Iran, made by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University, has been removed from the Persian language part of the president’s official website.

But the reference is in the English transcript.

Discovery of the disparity in the Persian version was made by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

The President’s website purportedly provides the authoritative transcripts of his speeches and is relied upon by the news media in Iran.

To date, not a single Persian-language media outlet in Iran – including Iran's official news agency, IRNA, and the semi-independent news agencies, ISNA, Mehrrnews and Farsnews, and the Wednesday morning newspapers – has reported on the President's comments, say IGLHRC who are monitoring coverage.

After President Ahmadinejad’s speech on Monday, Professor John H. Coatsworth moderated a Question & Answer session.

Among the questions was why Iran has executed citizens who are homosexuals, to which the President responded "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.”

Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of IGLHRC, said that initial response to the president’s reply was astonishment.

“But the whitewashing of his comments from the eyes and ears of most Iranian citizens speaks to something more troubling,” she said.

“His denial attempts to simply erase from public view the lives of men and women who face regular abuse in his country.  Perhaps he knows he could not credibly get away with such a denial among his own people.”

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Posted: 26 September 2007 at 00:00 (UK time)