Gay Iran

Contents:

• WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• GAY/QUEER SPAC TEHRAN: INTIMACY, SOCIALY, AND RISTANCE
• REVIEW 2023
• GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME

WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN

Sexual teractn between two women is punishable by vast majory of media reports about homosexualy Iran are based on acunts of torment and opprsn om gays and lbians who have fled the untry. And while their experienc are reprentative for some of Iran's homosexuals, they are hugely different om those of the people who choose to stay the untry, or don't have the opportuny to om lower class and ral areas, where stigmatizatn is often most severe, rarely have the abily to move out of the hoe before marriage, let alone leave the untry.

There is generally ltle acceptance of homosexualy, but some middle- and upper-class Iranians have the means to create parallel liv, out of sight of their relativ or iends.

"Nety-five percent of gays Iran will never e out, " Saeed says over pasta at one of northern Tehran's ffee shops, where the atmosphere is relatively permissive. | (VOCATIV/SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN)"The number one threat to gays and lbians Iran is the fay, " agre Hosse Alizah of the Internatnal Gay & Lbian Human Rights Commissn (IGLHRC), and himself an Iranian.

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

"The Iranian thori ually turn a bld eye to the gay muny's pas, but much like the telligence servic the former Soviet Unn, Iranian telligence is believed to pile large fil on many cizens, which they n e to build a legal se agast people who might be ught engagg polil activi. "The problem is that somewhere down the road, someone fds out you are gay and then starts blackmailg you. It don't have to be a straight [person], n be a gay who sleeps wh you and fds out you have money.

GAY/QUEER SPAC TEHRAN: INTIMACY, SOCIALY, AND RISTANCE

"Private parti are some of the easit plac for middle-class Iranian gays to hook up for one-night stands. The park is also one of the most popular pickup spots for Tehran's gay dk, Maseratis, BMWs and the ocsnal Porsche circle the park; you don't have to wa long to spot one of them slow to a halt and pick up a sgle man cisg the g. Most Iranian gay adults are heterosexual marriag, and prostutn is the preferred way to have same-sex affairs.

REVIEW 2023

It also provis a temptg e, for gays and straights alike, an enomy bet by flatn and though the typ of -person enunters are a way to elu virtual spi, they are still ght wh risk.

Recently, a story went around about a young gay man who was murred by two strangers durg BDSM play. He was jt strangled to ath, " says Saeed, who has bee more ut about meetg up wh strangers bee of siar 's parks are always crowd, and particularly around dk, many of them bee popular cisg spots for gay men. | (VOCATIV/JANUS ENGEL RASMUSSEN)So naturally, when Naeem* met Behram* four years ago on gay datg se Manjan, which is also monored, he was ially hant.

Seven months later, they rented an apartment wtern Tehran; they both still live at home and when Naeem here, he tells his parents he is gog out of town wh challenge of fdg a steady partner weighs heavily on Iranian gays; many speak of prsn, lonels and paranoia as almost permanent mental stat. She's a big gay in, and Febary she me out explic support of gay rights wh a vio for the song "Behht, " pictg a lbian uple love.

GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME

(In a male-domated society like Iran, homosexual women have even ls privacy than men, and often risk beg shunned by neighbors if they rent an apartment whout a hband. "I thk she tri to not watch the clip so she always chang the channel or pretends that she don't watch the TV, " he of the stigma agast homosexuals is trsic to the Persian language, which has two different words for homosexualy. "Yet the problem for men like Naeem and Behram is there's no real outlet to bate semantics: Although homosexualy n be punished, 's not somethg that is officially regnized.

In 2007, then-print Mahmoud Ahmadejad ludicroly claimed a speech New York, to loud jeers, that there were no gays Iran.