Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin -- who was part of an LGBT panel (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/fareed-zakaria-davos_n_4638124.html?1390468133) at Davos Thursday morning, the first of its kind at the World Economic Forum -- sat down with HuffPost Live (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/davos-2014_n_4635239.html) to talk about gay rights around the world.
Griffin was asked about a photo posted to Twitter by actress Goldie Hawn (http://www.towleroad.com/2014/01/goldie-hawn-met-the-wonderful-president-of-nigeria-today.html), showing her meeting anti-gay Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Griffin said he spoke with Hawn after she posted the photo, and said she didn't know the severity of Jonathan's anti-gay views.
Hawn has since deleted the photo, and Griffin said she has apologized.
Griffin called a recent piece of anti-gay legislation (http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-arrests-gays-under-controversial-new-law/1834562.html) signed by Jonathan "terrible."
"President Jonathan of Nigeria is one of the most dangerous anti-LGBT leaders that we have in the world today," Griffin said.
Griffin said countries with severe anti-gay laws -- like Russia (http://www.policymic.com/articles/58649/russia-s-anti-gay-law-spelled-out-in-plain-english), where the Olympics will take place next month -- have "severe instability." Griffin said anti-gay groups like the National Organization for Marriage have a hand in spreading "hate" to other countries and to leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/putin-gays-pedophiles_n_4627438.html?ir=Gay+Voices).
"Some of these leaders, I think, think they can get away with it in their own country without being branded as hateful," Griffin said.
He noted that with social media, especially sites like Twitter, anti-gay leaders are now being challenged on a global platform.
Watch Griffin's interview above, and see more from Davos below:
Source: huffingtonpost.com