Talk on Gays Brings Media Rush in Cairo
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CAIRO — When lawyer Carlos Jose Mosso put up a small sign announcing a lecture on gays Sunday, he didn’t realize the excitement it would cause.
More than 200 people--mostly Egyptian reporters and photographers--crowded into the lecture room, thinking that at last here was the gay demonstration anticipated as part of the “immoral” U.N. population conference.
The audience was so disruptive that the Argentine lawyer had to stand on a chair and shout, “I am not a homosexual; I have a family” before he could begin his talk.
The avid interest came because pro-Islamic and opposition newspapers, amid fundamentalists’ claims that the U.N. meeting was promoting promiscuity and homosexuality, had reported that gays and lesbians would be marching on the streets of Cairo.
Homosexuality is condemned by Islam.
Mosso, a Roman Catholic from a group called the League of Decency, talked about the current phenomenon of gays and lesbians revealing their sexuality and pleaded for understanding.
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