By Gary Barlow

What elephant?

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—known affectionately back in Iran as “the crazy president in the attic”—stirred up quite a bit of controversy during his visit to Columbia University last week.

Of course, most of the controversy was a direct result of people taking him far too seriously, but at any rate he made the news. One of his stranger comments came when he was asked about the harsh treatment of gays by the government in Iran. Ahmadinejad’s response was, “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”

Oh. I suppose we could have heard it from the gay guy who spoke in Chicago last October. Let’s see—he was from, why, yes, he was from Iran. And then there was the gay guy who wrote the Washington Post last week from—surprise, surprise—Iran. And then there were those photos of gay guys being hung in, of all places, Iran. You remember, don’t you, Mr. President? After all, there was even that court verdict saying they were hung for being gay.

Ahmadinejad’s “no gays in Iran” comments were not published in Farsi-language versions of his remarks in Iran. That was probably because no one there would know what he was talking about since they’ve never heard of gay people. No need to make the president look stupid or crazy, you know…

Getting it right

This is actually good news.

We were all a little hard on pro basketball star Tim Hardaway when he made his infamous anti-gay remark earlier this year. Well, things have changed. The director of a children’s advocacy institute in South Florida that works to raise awareness on issues facing GLBT youth says Hardaway has quietly become one of the group’s most ardent backers.

Hardaway, who’s declined most interview requests, said last week he went to the YES Institute “to go in and get educated, that’s all.”

The group’s director says, “We were surprised how real our relationship with Tim got.”

Hardaway said going to the group, after what he said, was difficult.

“I was scared out of my…mind,” he said. “But you know what? They welcomed me with open arms.”

Now, Hardaway says, he understands more and more everyday how homophobia affects people.

“I had no idea how much I hurt people,” he says. “I have taken steps and I’m happy that I did. If I didn’t, I’d still be naive about it, ignorant about the whole thing. But I can talk about it now.”

Getting it wrong

Not everyone is comfortable with doing something about teaching youths the virtue of respecting everybody, including GLBTs.

Consider the Democratic presidential contenders’ responses—and one Republican’s—last week when they were asked if they’d be comfortable with a second-grade teacher reading a story about a prince marrying another prince to their children.

Two of the responses were OK. John Edwards said, “Yes, absolutely.” Edwards went on to say that “second grade might be a little tough,” but quickly added that “even in second grade” children aren’t too young “to be exposed to all of those possibilities.”

Barack Obama wasn’t quite as direct, but said, “I feel very similar to John,” adding that his two children—ages 9 and 6—are “already aware that there are same-sex couples” because Obama’s wife has discussed it with them.

Hillary Clinton was a bit stiff, however, declining to answer the question directly, and saying, “With respect to your individual children, that is such a matter of parental discretion.”

The Republican who responded was none other than Mitt “Whichever Way the Wind Blows” Romney, who attacked the Democrats the next day, saying, “This is a subject that should be left to parents.”

OK—I suppose the Mittster also doesn’t think news programs should mention same-sex marriage. After all, children might learn about it there. Heck, why not even ban mention of gay people altogether on the news, Mitt. Swell, huh? Then children wouldn’t be exposed to gay people at all. Of course, they also wouldn’t learn how you supported gay rights when you were running for office in progressive Massachusetts, as opposed to running for president in places like South Carolina.

“Mitt Romney—At Some Point in His Career, He’s Been a Leader for All of Us.”