Appearing at Columbia University yesterday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad answered a question about the treatment of homosexuals in Iran by saying: “We don't have homosexuals like you do in your country," - a statement met with much laughter and booing from the crowd.
Gay activists holding posters of what is generally believed to be a picture of two gay men being executed in Iran joined hundreds of other demonstrators protesting the appearance of Ahmadinejad at the University.
The Iranian leader was asked about reports men who are gay or perceived to be gay have been executed. He refused to confirm or deny that executions of gays had taken place but then compared homosexuals to drug dealers and other criminals.
"Why should they get sympathy?" he asked. "Don't you have capital punishment in the United States?"
When pressed further Ahmadinejad said: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like you do in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it."
The remarks were greeted with loud jeers and laughter from the mostly student audience.
"Our nation is free," Ahmadinejad then declared.
Opponents of the government have accused Iran for several years of rounding up gays under Sharia law. In 2005 two young men hanged in a public square in northern Iran after were alleged to have been found guilty of homosexuality. The government claimed they had been convicted of kidnapping and raping a male teen.
In May a western LGBT organisation for gay Iranians says it has learned police have arrested as many as 87 gays at a private house party.
Some international gay rights groups believe that more than 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.
Columbia has taken a considerable amount of criticism for inviting Ahmadinejad to speak. But in introducing the Iranian leader Columbia President Lee Bollinger called Ahmadinejad to task.
"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. And so I ask you, why have women, members of the Ba'hai faith, homosexuals and so many of our colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?''
At the opening of his speech Ahmadinejad called Bollinger's remarks "an insult to the information and the knowledge of the audience here.''
A video excerpt of Ahmadinejad's appearance - in which he answers the question on the treatment of women and homosexuals in Iran - can be viewed below.