Ecuador is yanking the political rights of a former presidential candidate for a year, after he was judged guilty of making homophobic comments.  LBGT rights advocates are hailing the decision as a “milestone”.

Nelson Zavala will also have to pay a $3,000 fine for declaring that LGBT people "immoral" and suffered from "severe deviation of conduct" during the February election campaign.

Ecuador’s Constitution and the Code of Democracy expressly ban speech that violates peoples’ dignity or ideologies, or their sexual freedom.

Zavala’s lawyers say they’ll appeal the ruling.  Zavala is an evangelical preacher who claims to be able to “cure” Gays and Lesbians and, like most demagogues, says “God” is on his side:  "Those who judge me will be judged," he said.

God apparently wanted no part of him in the election, as he was last in a field of eight candidates and Democratic Socialist President Rafael Correa was the first chief executive in decades to be reelected without the need for a run-off.