Fark gave this an "Ironic" tag

Canada will be hosting the 1st World Outgames, an athletic competition for gay, lesbian, and transgendered athletes, but many of the competitors are having trouble getting their visa applications approved to enter the country . . . because many of them come from countries where being gay is a crime:

Just two weeks before the games are to begin, 242 foreign participants are still waiting for visas, say organizers for the 1st World Outgames.

More than a dozen other participants for the event, which runs July 26 to Aug. 5, have already been refused entry to Canada, they say.

On Tuesday, the Liberal party issued a statement calling on Solberg to look into the matter. [. . .]

Noel St. Pierre, an immigration lawyer in Montreal, told CBC that several of those rejected entry into Canada were told it was because they have criminal records.

St. Pierre said he was investigating the nature of the criminal records, since many of the invited athletes face prosecution in their home countries for being homosexual.

The 1st World Outgames are being billed as the largest sports gathering in Montreal since the 1976 Olympics.

I hope that the minister sees this as the kind of bureaucratic stupidity that can — and should — be quashed. If any of the applicants have criminal records for things that would be considered crimes in Canada, fine, but if the criminal record is for something that is perfectly legal here then morally there's only one correct answer.

Hat tip to Fark.com (but you can safely ignore most of the troglodyte comments in that thread).