President of Brazil: Homophobia is "Perverse Disease"

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil who is better known as Lula, was the first head of state to ever hold a national conference to promote LGBT rights this month. In his address - and here are some words you'll never hear out of George W. Bush's mouth - he promised to "do all that is possible so that the criminalization of homophobia and [the legalization of] the civil union may be approved." Bush wants a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage and civil unions and as governor of Texas praised the state's sodomy law- since overturned by a 2003 Supreme Court ruling - as "a good statement of family values."

Lula called homophobia "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head," the UK Pink News reported.

While anti-gay prejudice is a problem in Brazil, same-sex relations have been legal since 1823 except in the military, the newspaper said.