MUGABE, POPE AND MEL GIBSON AMONG TOP HOMOPHOBES

Celebrating its 45th year, America’s Advocate magazine has published a list of the top 45 homophobes who emerged during the course of its existence.

“…call them what you like — bigot or hater or just plain wrong — but here’s our list of the 45 most odious homophobes from Advocate history,” said the magazine.

Two Africans are included on the list. There’s ageing Zimbabwe despot Robert Mugabe, who the magazine noted has “called gays insane and unnatural,” as well as parliamentarian David Bahati, who infamously authored and continues to champion Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Pope Benedict XVI is slammed for his vociferous anti-gay stance, as are other religious leaders such as American evangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson as well as Fred Phelps, founder of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church.

Actor Mel Gibson is given a spot thanks to a host of anti-gay comments made throughout his career and his “homophobic portrayals in his movies”.

The list also includes discredited gay-cure group Exodus International, the late American president Ronald Reagan, Dan White, who shot Harvey Milk, the Boy Scouts of America and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed in 2007 that there are no gay people in Iran, despite his country hanging a number of them.

Check out the Advocate magazine’s “45 Biggest Homophobes of Our 45 Years” here.