Very Gay, Very Iranian |

Contents:

• IRAN PURPORTEDLY EXECUT 2 GAY MEN OVER SODOMY CHARG
• GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM
• 1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?
• IRANIAN GAY MAN, 20, MURRED AND BEHEAD BY HIS FAY
• IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM
• WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN
• HOW ARE IRANIAN GAY MEN COPG WH SYSTEMATIC SUPPRSN UNR ISLAMIC LAW? A QUALATIVE STUDY
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME
• A RD EXEMPTED A GAY MAN OM SERVG IRAN’S ARY. IT MAY HAVE ST HIM HIS LIFE

IRAN PURPORTEDLY EXECUT 2 GAY MEN OVER SODOMY CHARG

The Islamic Republic of Iran publicly hanged a 31-year-old Iranian man after he was found guilty of charg related to vlatns of Iran’s anti-gay laws, acrdg to the state-ntrolled Iranian Stunts’ News unintified man was hanged on January 10 the southwtern cy of Kazeroon based on crimal vlatns of “lavat-e be onf” – sexual terurse between two men, as well as kidnappg charg, acrdg to ISNA. “Iran is not only the most dangero threat to Israel’s secury, is also a champn the state murr of actual or perceived homosexuals, ” said Volker Beck, a German Party Green Party polician and a lecturer at the Center for Studi Relig Scienc (CERES) at the Ruhr Universy Bochum.

” The statement about cizens of Kazeroon uld not be penntly 2016, The Jesalem Post reported Iran’s regime had executed a gay adolcent that year – the first nfirmed executn of someone nvicted as a juvenile the Islamic Afshar, 19, was hanged Arak Prison Iran’s Markazi Provce on July 18, 2016, after he was nvicted of “forced male-to-male anal terurse” early 2011, Iran’s regime executed three Iranian men after beg found guilty of charg related to M.

Hochre, a spokman for the Hirschfeld-Eddy-Stiftung Foundatn, which fights to advance the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people, told the Post:“Iran is one of the worst stat for the persecutn of LGBTI.

GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM

"Of urse the motive of such murrs by fay members is to fend the 'honor' of the tribe or fay, but we should never fet the social stigma and hatred nstantly reproduced by the social and legal nstcts agast LGBTQ members, " she this area of the world face enormo dangers for beg openly gay. We are still aaid of the regime makg a database of gay and transgenr people and puttg them unr prsure whenever they want, " Shadi Am, an LGBTQ activist based Germany, told ABC ia of receivg an exemptn rd is leavg many gay and trans Iranians worried they'd be brand and vulnerable to harassment and discrimatn. "People hold banners prottg agast discrimatn and persecutn agast homosexuals Iran, July 28, 2007, ont of the Eiffel tower Meda/AFP via Getty Imag, File Mahdi, a 36-year-old Iranian gay man who did not want to e his full name over safety ncerns, told ABC News that hearg the news of Monfared's murr broke his heart.

She's currently on the on the Wt Hollywood Bs License Commissn and was prevly a member of the cy's Lbian and Gay Advisory other new member is John Erickson, a gay man who at 35 will be the youngt person on the uncil, the Los Angel Tim reports. Shyne received the most vot last week's electn, 7, 850, while Erickson was send place wh 7, 118, so they won the two seats that were up for a vote this bted two cumbents, both gay men: John Heilman, who'd been on the uncil, except for a three-month hiat, ever sce Wt Hollywood rporated as a cy 1984, and John Duran, a uncil member sce 2001, who had been acced of sexual harassment. Amnty Internatnal said January that the charg stemmed om her public fense of gay rights on her social media platforms, as well as an appearance a BBC documentary aired May 2021 about the ab that LGBTQ people suffer the Kurdistan Regn of northern Iraq (KRG).

But today PLoS Medice me out wh a paper wh a rult which suggts that the anecdot of relatively wispread homosexual behavr the Middle East are not totally unfound or unreprentative (the journalist Hugh Pope has dited that Middle Eastern men have sometim assumed he would naturally be open to sexual proposns bee he was a Wterner. This 20-year-old betiful soul om Iran was btally killed by his brother & s for beg gay as part of an honour 's LGBTQ muny is btalised both by the regime & by bigotry certa fai#علیرضا_فاضلی_منفرد — Masih Alejad ?️ (@AlejadMasih) May 8, 2021.

1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?

“Alireza’s killg as a rult of his sexual orientatn beg stated on his ary service [exemptn] rd has once aga provid proof for our warng several years ago about the risks ed by the ary service exemptn procs for gay Iranian men and unrl the need for legislatn to prevent the safety risks, ” the anizatn said a statement. Richard Grenell, the openly gay former Actg Director of US Natnal Intelligence and then-Ambassador to Germany, phed back on Zarif’s ments statg, “The Iranian regime has vlated basic prcipl of the Uned Natns.

Read allSee productn, box office & pany PhotosBe the first to reviewContribute to this pageSuggt an ed or add missg ntentBy what name was Iranian, Gay & Seekg Asylum (2009) officially released Canada English? 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.

"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 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.

IRANIAN GAY MAN, 20, MURRED AND BEHEAD BY HIS FAY

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. "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.

While the new centrist ernment unr Print Hassan Rouhani matas a siar rea as s precsor, foreign-based media outlets like BBC Persian, Rad Zaman and Voice of Ameri e non-rogatory language about homosexuals, and is slowly tricklg down to reformist outlets si the untry, and to young Iranians, says spe s often venomo rhetoric, the Iranian regime silently accepts that gays do exist, and tak a few pragmatic steps to acunt for that Quran, the foundatn of Iranian law, explicly bans homosexualy.

LGBT dividuals Iran have been sufferg om systematic supprsn and discrimatn for s and, orr for them to survive, like any other mori and isolated groups, they have formed a unique some may nsir homosexualy to be a relatively new Wtern phenomenon, a brief look at the history of same-sex relatnships Iran reveals that is, fact, prevalent throughout Iran’s historil culture.

IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM

Dpe this long history of homosexualy Iran, many of the untry’s current homosexuals, particularly the younger generatn, tend to intify more wh a morn perspective rather than a historil or even cultural one (Mahdavi 2012; Yagarfard and Bahramabadian 2014). However, a signifint number of those who unrgo the surgery do so not bee they are transgenr but bee they are gay, lbian or bisexual and see sex change surgery as the only optn for them to “erase the ‘sta’ of homosexualy and bee ‘legal’ unr Iranian law” (Human Rights Watch 2010, p.

While a major factor this issue is how the Iranian thori’ policy and law have created an environment of social isolatn, is further pound by profsnal practners and psychologists Iran and their attempts at ‘treatg’ the sexual ‘viancy’ of homosexuals and lbians (see Am 2015). Then through snowball samplg 57 gay men were ntacted through email and only 38 people replied to the ial email, then rm nsent were sent to 38 prospective participants that of them only 29 showed tert to participate the study, the rt dropped out due to the sensivy of the subject, fear of discloser, fear of alg wh strs durg the terview, not knowg the terviewer and lack of tst and not feelg fortable to do the terview trough vio ll. At the same time, however, they exprsed their willgns to participate bee they felt any rearch of Iranian gay men might ntribute to the velopment of knowledge and unrstandg of gay men and their current suatn Iran.

Ined, some of the ma reasons given by participants for agreeg to participate the current rearch were that, through this rearch, the thori might hear their voice sayg “we exist”; they were fightg stigmatisatn and discrimatn; and they were raisg awarens society about gay men Iran.

WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN

Thirdly, sex helps them to nnect to other gay men and engage social workg as a pg strategy for social isolatn and narratns of the participants’ sex experienc were very varied; for stance, two participants mentned that bee they had their own home, they uld have sex 3–4 tim a week. There is a school of thought which suggts that the practice of engagg risky sexual behavur serv as a symbolic act of rebelln by gay mal, albe one that may be rried out subnscly or even jt as part of the accepted gay culture (Crossley 2004). Psychologilly, the act of engagg risky sexual practic may provi some members of the gay muny wh a fulfillg sense of prottg and rebellg agast the domant social valu which they feel opprs their eedom and pennce (Crossley 2004) addn, two participants mentned that they even stood the street, pecially the eveng and at nights, to get picked up by rs.

HOW ARE IRANIAN GAY MEN COPG WH SYSTEMATIC SUPPRSN UNR ISLAMIC LAW? A QUALATIVE STUDY

There are many reports of gay dividuals standg the well-known “pick-up pots” who have been beaten to ath by strangers or even by the moraly police or the Basij (UK Home Office 2016) most mon risk takg act intified was “gatherg public and unrground get-togethers or parti”. In spe of the legal and health-related risks associated wh alhol and dg e Iran, gay men are still misg the substanc as part of their pg mechanism for alg wh the strs and anxiety ed by their social isolatn, discrimatn and systematic has been observed that many members of the gay populatn e alhol and dgs to overe the pa of rejectn, isolatn, and discrimatn (e. For stance, participant 15, who was 30 years old, sgle and not datg, and unemployed, mentned that although he knew that he had no sexual or emotnal sire towards the oppose sex and he was sure that he was gay, he did not follow his sire.

Eleven participants mentned that they found challengg believg Islam and beg gay simultaneoly; five participants also mentned that they had left their relign and they now nsired themselv as Iran is an Islamic untry and relig tn is mandatory for everyone at school om a very early age, hypothetilly might have some level of impact on an dividual’s sexual behavurs general. (2007) reported how they adopted var methods of gnive behavur therapy (CBT) such as vert aversn (aversn therapy, g electro shock and vom-ducg dgs) to succsfully “treat” three homosexual and two transsexual “patients”, who exhibed heterosexual behavur after receivg the therapy. In this study, was observed by the rearcher that the reason for the succs of the treatment was largely due to the patients’ sire to change bee of their unrstandg that homosexualy or transgenrism was unacceptable Iranian culture.

In such an environment of persecutn and neglect, many non-state actors rry out acts of homophobic vlence wh impuny (UK Home Office 2016) of the three who had married mentned that, even though they were married, they had relatnships wh other men secret. The suatn is ma worse by the Turkish placement policy of ncentratg homosexual refuge small and often highly nservative ci (Saastamoen 2017) Network and Fay of ChoiceAll of the participants mentned that they eher ed to e social media and/or datg apps or were still g them. The ma reasons for g social media acrdg to the participants were nnectg to other gay dividuals, feelg that they were a safe place, makg nversatn about homosexualy Iran and LGBTQ rights, sex and fdg a sex partner, lookg for a more ser relatnship, chattg wh others which helped them regardg their isolatn and lonels, and also accsg rmatn (see also Karimi 2016).

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

There is no doubt that gay dividuals Iran experience ‘mory strs’, fed as a state rultg om “…culturally sanctned, tegorilly ascribed ferr stat, social prejudice and discrimatn, the impact of the environmental forc on psychologil well-beg, and nsequent readjtment or adaptatn” (Brooks 1981, p. As prevly intified, there is then a tenncy for gay dividuals to turn to substanc such as alhol and dgs as a pg vice to help them al wh their negative social ClassThe social class of the participants this study were very diverse.

In addn, participant 4, who was 41 years old, a relatnship, and self-employed, mentned that he was om a workg-class fay livg the south of Tehran and that the suatn for gay men there was more difficult than for people the north of Tehran, as people the south were more tradnal and nservative than people om the north. The creased probabily of openly admtg to beg gay, the length of time between mencg same-sex relatnships and g out to others, and the high probabily of havg sexual relatns wh women spe a lack of sire to do so are all ditive that the standards of masculy related to social class have a ntrollg effect on the social liv of workg-class gay men (Barrett and Pollack 2005).

GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

Dpe the suggtns, is the opn of the rearcher that a purely thematic approach nstut the most appropriate method of analysis the prent study on the reasong that the gay muny Iran is a small and vulnerable group and, therefore, the person-centred approach uld promise the participants’ anonymy. Moreover, as the qualative rearch is highly subjective and the rearcher’s personaly and experience might affect the validy and reliabily of the rearch (Crwell 2014), is important to mentn that the rearcher is fully aware of his own possible bias and prenceptns due to his few years of practice as a psychologil therapist wh LGBT dividuals and LGBT anisatns as well as his prev rearch experience this field, pecially among gay men and male-to-female transgenr dividuals.

GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME

ConclnThroughout the 40 years (1979–2019) of opprsn unr Iran’s Islamic law, durg which social l and laws have been signed to prevent gay mal livg Iran om beg open about their sexualy, many gay mal livg Iran have actively sought to overe the rtrictns on their eedom. The stcture of Iran’s gay populatn has bee more plex when we nsir that certa dividuals n fd themselv changg their social inty several tim a day as they move om one social muny to the next through the urse of their daily activi.

It is hardly surprisg such an opprsive and secretive environment of stutnalised discrimatn that the members of Iran’s unrground gay muny experience emotns of fear, anger, rejectn, and tratn, leadg them to velop a variety of pg strategi. Origally veloped as survival techniqu, the pg strategi have bee, over time, part of what we know today as “gay culture” and seems that one of s more effective benefs has been providg the ordatn and anisatn that enable s members to mata a sense of orr their liv as they navigate om one social suatn to the next, mimisg anxiety as a rult.

A RD EXEMPTED A GAY MAN OM SERVG IRAN’S ARY. IT MAY HAVE ST HIM HIS LIFE

Shared not only among gay muni but also across generatns, this rmatn-sharg system empowers members of the Iranian gay culture to overe both physil and psychologil hurdl by givg them a sense of belongg, the eedom to pursue happs and well-beg, and genue meang their liv.

Through onle activism, publishg poetry, lerature and artwork onle, and engagg wh global gay culture through televisn and the ter, gay Iranians are g of age, spe the myriad of rtrictns they still face Iranian society and at the hands of the state.