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09/25/2007
CBC Takes a Look at Iran's Underground Gay Community
Earlier this year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a lengthy piece on gay people in Iran — the gay people Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims do not exist.
Parts two and three below.
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Ahmadinejad: "In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals" [tr]
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Posted 11:10 AM EST by Andy Towle in Gay Rights, Iran, News | Permalink
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I wonder how Nancy Pelosi is going respond to her constituents now since she previously stated that Ahmadinejad was simply mis-understood? I am not sure who is mis-understood, did the Iranian president really say that his country had no gays or did Pelosi really believe that he was really not that harmless?
Posted by: RB | Sep 25, 2007 11:31:27 AM
I actually watched this when it aired on CBC Sunday Morning ... right after the weekly 2 1/2 hour Coronation Street compendium.
At one point during the interview (see part three) when they begin filming they have to hide the cameras because the undercover police approach them.
Homosexual acts remain punishable by death in Iran, as well as Mauritania, Saudi-Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, some parts of Nigeria and Somalia and for the third conviction only in Chechnya.
Homosexual acts are penalized by a sentence of life in prison in; Barbados (Not enforced if the act is in private - Under review) Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Maldives, Myanmar/Burma, Pakistan, Qatar, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.
We are lucky, although we still deal with discrimination and hatred, we live in a society which, for the most, part is tolerant.
Posted by: Joseph | Sep 25, 2007 11:48:54 AM
I often wonder how those who insist being gay is a choice explain people "choosing" to be gay in countries where that can mean either death or very severe punishment. As with "gays are bad for army morale" it's an argument that holds no water once you look outside the US.
Posted by: John C | Sep 25, 2007 11:49:30 AM
Will someone check the stats? I once read that the majority of internet gay porn hits come from the Middle East. Where they don't have any homosexuals...
Posted by: Dan | Sep 25, 2007 12:03:17 PM
Will someone check the stats? I once read that the majority of internet gay porn hits come from the Middle East. Where they don't have any homosexuals...
Posted by: Dan | Sep 25, 2007 12:03:56 PM
Joseph, one point of clarification to your post. In most of the countries you listed above it is strictly MALE homosexuality that is illegal. Many of these countries' laws are hold overs from Victorian moral codes imposed on them through British colonialism. These British laws made male homosexuality illegal but didn't address female homosexuality. A number of these countries had a tradition of being much more open and tolerant of homosexuality prior to the British moral impositions.
It's only been in the last couple of years that former British colonies have brought their age of consent for male/male sex into line with those much lower ages of consent for both heterosexual AND lesbian sex. England, South Africa, Canada, Scotland, and Hong Kong (Victoria) are just a few of the countries who have recently, usual due to court ruling, brought their age of consent laws into line. Many other countries retain these anti gay male laws on the books and enforce them regularly.
So much for living in a man's world. Not a GAY man's world anyway.
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 25, 2007 12:52:24 PM
That just makes me cry that these people have to suffer like that.
Posted by: Marc | Sep 25, 2007 12:58:18 PM
Ironically, in Iran a woman is more likely to be executed for having sex with a man than she is for having sex with a woman.
The condition for Iranian women is simply deplorable. They can be subjected to "honor killings" simply for "allowing" themselves to be raped. The woman is blamed for and punished for, often in death, for having the misfortune of being assaulted and violated. More outrageous still is the fact that these "honor" murders are most often carried out by the woman's own family.
Disgusting!
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 25, 2007 12:58:32 PM
Thanks for the clarification Zeke.
You're right, although not always gender specific by definition, 'sodomy laws' are generally applied to homosexual intercourse between males.
Posted by: Joseph | Sep 25, 2007 1:05:28 PM
The only way possible for there to be no homosexuals in Iran would be for there to be no MEN in Iran. period.
Middle Eastern culture might be the most homophobic on earth, and also one with the most men in the closet, or maybe they just don't view it the same way we do. Most of them DO have sex with other men, but as long as they are the ones doing the actual penetration, they still consider themselves macho hetersexual men (much like men in Western society prisons).
Whatever.....who cares? It will NEVER change. (much like the dream of peace in the middle east)
Posted by: Jordan | Sep 25, 2007 1:13:53 PM
Whereas Ahmadinajad's comment regarding homosexuality at Columbia U was rather absurd to us, I'm a little embarrassed by the "shocked" reaction it's getting. Iran is not a free country. Period. Of course there are homosexuals there, we know this to be true. But we are viewing his comment through the lens of our own culture which in NO WAY compares to the culture zeitgeist of Iran. Of course his response was what it was, viewed through the correct cultural lens it makes perfect sense. It's sad that the same freedoms don't exist there that do here, but is it up to us to free the gays of Iran? I imagine that the state department is thrilled by Ahmadinajad's reception at Columbia and all the media attention it's getting. Now even the gays hate him. Before long he will be so villified we'll be ready to go to war with him (2008 latest) and the draft that goes along with it will be fine, too.
I see little irony in the fact that the government controlled media has been in such a frenzy over crazy Ahmadinajad's visit.
Posted by: CHUCK | Sep 25, 2007 1:14:18 PM
Oh jeez. Please tell me these people live in Canada. Ahmadinajad will have them all killed (to make what he said true).
Posted by: shane | Sep 25, 2007 1:17:04 PM
The Gay Kama Sutra:
http://www.gaypaintings.com/magazine/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=22
Posted by: John C | Sep 25, 2007 1:38:04 PM
Chuck, I think you're right. Though we have all had a laugh, or a cry, over the remarks made by Ahmadinajad I think they have been taken completely out of context.
I could be wrong but I think he was intending to say, through an interpreter, was that in Iran they don't have gay people, as in openly homosexual people with a culture, an identity and a visible community the way we do in the United States.
He's crazy, he's an ass and he's a tyrant but I don't think he's deaf or blind enough to really believe that there are NO homosexuals in Iran.
Posted by: Zeke | Sep 25, 2007 6:58:58 PM
Yes, Zeke you are correct! "He's crazy, he's an ass and he's a tyrant" and he is NOT someone to turn your back on!!! He is DANGEROUS to America and the sooner we see that the better off we will be.
They do not have "that problem in Iran"...I guess if you execute your "problems", they no longer exist.
Posted by: RB | Sep 25, 2007 9:25:19 PM
"He's crazy, he's an ass and he's a tyrant but I don't think he's deaf or blind enough to really believe that there are NO homosexuals in Iran."
Well, he's deaf or blind enough to deny the Holocaust, why not the existence of gay people in his country?
Posted by: jmg | Sep 25, 2007 9:29:22 PM
Thank you, RB. As we get closer to Halloween, would you promise to keep us appraised of all the boogeymen we should be fearing right now? It's difficult for the government-controlled media to keep up.
Posted by: CHUCK | Sep 25, 2007 11:05:24 PM
Did the lunatic see any bright lights circling his head like 2005 when he was last at the U.N.? This dood definitely needs a nuke. Gawd y'all, heY!
~ X anemi
Posted by: anemi easy | Sep 26, 2007 7:45:56 AM