Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe gets the wrong kind of laughs for telling the U.N. 'we are not gays'

In his speech Monday before the United Nations General Assembly, longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe noted that "respecting and upholding human rights is the obligation of all states," enshrined in the U.N. Charter. But, he added, that charter doesn't "arrogate the right to some to sit in judgment over others in carrying out this universal obligation."

If you're wondering where Mugabe was headed, he then criticized "the self-anointed prefects of our time," presumably in Europe and the U.S., for prescribing "'new rights' that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions, and beliefs." And in case that wasn't clear enough, he improvised, telling the assembled delegates and world leaders: "We are not gays."

"Mugabe's line earned him light applause and some laughter," notes BuzzFeed's Hayes Brown, who added that Mugabe "has frequently used anti-LGBT rhetoric, including last year when he referred to same-sex relationships as 'inhuman' and threatened to kick-out any diplomats who spoke of LGBT rights." You can watch the beginning of the laugher in the video below, but RT cuts out Mugabe's very next lines: "Cooperation and respect for each other will advance the cause of human rights worldwide. Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not." Peter Weber