It's a well documented fact that the Iranian government executes suspected homosexuals, yet president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to deny such atrocities.

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Larry King has a well-earned reputation for launching soft balls to his interview subjects, but not so when it comes to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in town addressing the United Nations.

While some mainstream media types avoid getting into gay speak, King grilled Ahmadinejad about his country's homophobic human rights record.

[Gay action starts at about the 1:43 mark.]

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Despite dozens of reports on persecutions and executions over the years, UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith insists that there's no threat to gay people in Iran. As long as they're "discreet," of course…

…In her letter to Lord Roberts of Llandudno, Ms Smith rejected a call for an immediate halt to the deportation of gay and lesbian asylum seekers. "We recognise that the conditions for gay and lesbian people in Iran – and many other countries – are such that some individuals are able to demonstrate a need for international protection.
…
With particular regard to Iran, current case law handed down by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal concludes that the evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation."

Gay campaign groups estimate that 4,000 Iranians have been executed because of their sexuality since the late 1970s. Ms Smith suggests it is far fewer.

Smith's letter came after activists took on the UK's asylum system, which some claim doesn't do enough to further gay rights.

America's next president will have quite a task: boosting our international standing.

In an effort to get the ball rolling, Equality Forum asked Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton if they would help persuade British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to stay 19-year old Iranian Mehdi Kazemi's deportation.

Kazemi's been shuttled back and forth between Britain and The Netherlands as the government decides whether to send him home, where he'll likely face an execution.

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would approve.

The Iranian president became an international laughing stock last year after claiming Iran doesn't have gays like the Western world. And, according to a Human Rights Watch report, he's right!

Michael Petrelis passes on word that gays, queers and other so-called deviants make nary an appearance in HRW's last four reports on the Middle Eastern nation. Of course, we all know Iran's got some homos, because we sporadically hear accounts of public executions. The government deems these people sexual criminals, often claiming they abused a teenage boy or another despicable act.

Many activists see this as a not-so-subtle code for queer, but the hazy boundaries of these deaths may explain HRW's hesitancy. As the non-profit's Scott Long wrote in 2006:

For eight months, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has researched a report on abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Iran, interviewing dozens in Iran and the diaspora, trying to separate fact from rhetoric and rumor. As a prominent Iranian dissident said last week, “We need cases!” — documentation, not speculation.

And, unfortunately, dead bodies don't count as documentation. If only those dang Iranians kept better records of their monstrosities!

What would Michael Lucas say!

Two prominent personalities - CNN's Glenn Beck and activist Peter Tatchell - compared asylum seeking gay Iranian Mehdi Kazemi's plight to that of Nazi fleeing Jews. Watch Beck's comments above and Tatchell's after the jump.

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