LOL! INDIA'S HEALTH MINISTER SAYS HOMOSEXUALITY IS A DISEASE & COMPLETELY UNNATURAL!

India's health minister is coming under international fire after declaring that homosexuality is a "disease" brought to the country by foreigners.

Ghulam Nabi Azad made the shocking remarks Monday at a conference on HIV/AIDS, which was attended by a slew of senior government officials, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Unfortunately, this disease has come to our country too ... where a man has sex with another man, which is completely unnatural and should not happen, but does," Azad said in New Delhi.

Gay rights activists immediately blasted Azad.

They said his remarks were troubling, especially coming from the health minister of a country where roughly 2.5 million people have HIV. India has the largest number of people living with the virus in Asia.

"These comments help no cause. It's definitely not going to help in our fight against HIV," said Anjali Gopalan, head of the NAZ Foundation, a group that promotes gay rights and works with people infected by HIV.

A United Nations official ripped Azad.

"There is no place for stigma and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement that praised India's overall efforts in combating HIV.

"Consistent with the World Health Organization's disease classification, UNAIDS does not regard homosexuality as a disease," he added.

There was no immediate comment from the health ministry. The prime minister's office refused to discuss Azad's remarks.

A 148-year-old colonial-era law declaring homosexuality a crime and punishable by up to 10 years in jail was overturned by the courts just two years ago.

These weren't Azad's first eyebrow-raising remarks.

A few years ago, he suggested Indians watch more late night television instead of having sex as a method to curb the country's population growth.



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