At an event marking the United Nations' 70th anniversary, Secretary General of the United Nations offered a pointed critique of laws that criminalize consensual sex between people of the same gender, notably given in a nation that recently re-enacted its own ban on so-called homosexual sodomy.

"I staunchly oppose the criminalization of homosexuality,” said Ban Ki-Moon in New Delhi, India. The Secretary General has long been an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights, calling on U.N. member nations to abandon antigay laws as early as 2010, and most recently introducing Austrian drag queen and Eurovision singing contest winner Conchita Wurst to the U.N. offices in Vienna last November.

"We have to fight for the equality of all members of our human family regardless of any difference, including sexual orientation," Ban said.

Although the secretary general did not directly address antigay laws in India, the country shocked its own LGBT citizens and people around the world when the high court in 2013 reinstated a colonial-era ban on sodomy. The law technically prohibits "Carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman, or animal," and provides prison sentences of up to 10 years for offenders. His full speech can be read here.
Read More