A gay couple in Argentina was allegedly attacked in the name of Pope Francis.

A group of people reportedly approached Pedro Robledo and his partner AgustÃ­n Sargiotto at a party saying ‘you are an embarrassment to the Argentine pope’ and ‘homosexuality is a sin’, according to news website El Diario.

In an interview with INFOnews, Robledo said: ‘A kid told me we had to leave because we were in a Catholic household, and we couldn’t have Argentine faggots when there’s an Argentine pope’.

Robledo claims he and his partner were approached and subsequently attacked because they were kissing at the 23 March party.

The couple reported the incident with local authorities after Robeldo was released from the hospital for his injuries sustained at the party.

Robledo identified one attacker as Juan Iganzio AmenÃ¡bar.

Esteban PaulÃ³n, president of the Argentine LGBT Federation (FALGBT), the country’s leading gay and lesbian rights organization, released a statement saying: ‘It is striking that the perpetrators invoked the Pope when they attacked Pedro and AgustÃ­n.

‘Our country decided more than two years ago to devote ourselves to full equality for all citizens with the Marriage Equality Act. And that equality should guarantee us the right to free expression in any setting and under any circumstances’.

Pope Francis was one of the main opponents of Argentina’s 2010 same-sex marriage bill and has publicly called gay people a ‘defection of human nature’ and a ‘threat to world peace’.



