Speaking at the Islamic Awakening conference, Dr Velayati, who is also Iran’s former foreign affairs minister, described the situation of Western cultures ‘worrisome’, adding, ‘corruption and decay is spreading all over the West. 

'The moral degradation in the West is worsening by the day... Homosexuality is driving Western family foundations into ruins.’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called being gay ‘ugly’, compared it to stealing, and said it ‘ceases procreation’.

In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Ahmadinejad told the British broadcaster Western countries should not expect the Middle East to recognize homosexuality as normal.

When Ahmadinejad was asked by Morgan how great it would be if the Iranian president was for gay rights, the conservative Muslim rejected the suggestion.

Iran’s LGBT community celebrated its third national day of sexual minorities today (27 July).

They used it to send a message of love and solidarity.

Activists in Iran took photos, wrote blogs and recorded themselves to show that they exist everywhere, and are proud of their sexuality.

Protestors in Brazil rallied over the weekend against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit.

Hundreds of gay, Jewish and rights activists took to the the famed Ipanema beach in protest of the Iranian president's presence in Rio de Janeiro for the UN summit on sustainable development.

Protestors carrying banners that read 'Rio does not welcome Mahmoud Ahmadinejad' and 'Iranians we love you' condemned the Iranian's president treatment of gays and Jews.

Iranian gay activists have responded after the secretary-general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights described homosexuality as a western ‘disease’.

Radio Free Europe also reports that General Mohammad Javad Larijani said that same-sex marriage is ‘immoral’.

He made the remarks in Tehran during a visit by German Tom Koenigs, who chairs the human rights committee in Germany’s parliament.