On July 19, protests were held around the world marking the first anniversary of the hanging of two gay teens, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, in Mashhad, Iran. The teens were hanged on charges that they raped a 13-year-old boy, charges widely believed to have been trumped up to silence critics. Simon Forbes and Peter Tatchell of the British gay rights group OutRage issued a joint call with the Paris-based International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) for worldwide protests with the message, "Iran: Stop Killing Gays! Stop Killing Kids!"
In Washington, Rob Anderson led a protest at Dupont Circle. In San Francisco, Michael Petrelis assembled speakers at Harvey Milk Plaza. In Provincetown, Andrew Sullivan led a quiet vigil outside Town Hall. In Toronto, Arsham Parsi, Human Rights Secretary of the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO), spoke at a commemorative gathering. In Iran, PGLO members lit candles privately.
During the planning of the protests, OutRage proposed five demands, which were endorsed by PGLO and IDAHO. They included ending all executions in Iran; stopping the arrest and torture of LGBT Iranians; halting the deportation to Iran of LGBT and other asylum seekers; supporting Iranians struggling for democracy; and opposing foreign military intervention in Iran.
Some organizers in an email exchange questioned the need for a list of demands. Andrew Sullivan wrote, "The images tell you everything. We just need to stop and remember. The rest we can debate later." I emailed to say that the list of demands omitted 'opposition to Holocaust denial' and 'opposition to nuclear saber rattling'." But the European organizers kept their demands, while stressing that organizers in other cities were free to adopt them or not.
On July 7, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) announced that it would join the July 19 worldwide action with a vigil against the death penalty, outside the Iranian mission to the United Nations. On July 13, however, IGLHRC pulled out of the protest and announced it was moving its July 19 event and changing its focus to one of introspection for Westerners. (The Iranian mission protest was held by others, organized by Andy Humm.) Joining IGLHRC at New York's LGBT Community Center were Human Rights Watch (HRW), National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and others. IGLHRC said that the worldwide call for protests raised questions like "How do we avoid reinforcing stereotypes and playing into hostilities prompted by our own government?"
The reference to "our own government" was illuminated by a July 18 email from Scott Long of HRW to Peter Tatchell, writing, "Months of US pressure on Iran have only inflated the popularity of the Ahmedinejad government" - thus changing the subject to Ugly Americans. Long accused the protest organizers of rank speculation, and claimed that the concentration on the Mashhad hangings "pins refugees' fates and lives on a single undetermined case, rather than on an analysis of the overall situation in Iran" - despite the fact that OutRage three months ago published a report of a nine-month investigation by Simon Forbes into numerous cases based on information gathered from sources inside Iran.
While acknowledging that Iran tortures and kills people for homosexual conduct, Long stated, "There is no basis whatever for imputing a Westernized 'gay' identity to these youths" - thereby employing a Western social-constructionist trope belied by the involvement of self-identified gay Iranians in the July 19 organizing. Long contradicted his professed respect for Tatchell's work by injecting lines like "I do not play games with the dead" (as if Tatchell does), "Look at the world, not just London and New York," and "Do you have a plan for change, or just for catharsis?"
Tatchell, whose brave international activism has gone far beyond mere catharsis, had written in a July 14 open letter to Long and IGLHRC's Paula Ettelbrick that Iranian sources claim that Asgari and Marhoni were gay and were hanged for being lovers. Tatchell wrote, "I am not prepared to give the benefit of doubt to the murderous regime in Tehran...." He also noted that the July 19 protest message was worded more broadly, without reference to the Mashhad case.
In a July 6 interview in Gay City News, Doug Ireland quotes Mani (not his real name), a 24-year-old PGLO activist living in Iran: "You who live serenely and comfortably on the other side of Iran's frontiers, be aware that those who think and feel and love like you do in Iran are executed for the crime of homosexuality, are assassinated, kidnapped, and barred from working in offices…. Be fair and tell us what difference there is between us and you. Isn't it time that all homosexuals around the world rise up and come to our defense?" On July 19, people in dozens of cities worldwide answered a resounding Yes.
HRW has written over 50 affidavits for Iranian LGBT asylum seekers, and is preparing a report on abuses in Iran based on sexual orientation and gender identity. This is commendable, but does not justify belittling the efforts of others.
The condescension of some professional activists is both illiberal and pointless. No one needs permission from a central committee to fight for our rightful place in the world. Demonstrations are insufficient, to be sure, but the global protests on July 19, organized via the Internet, shone a light on a grave injustice. That is a good and necessary thing to do, the snipings of would-be gatekeepers notwithstanding.
14 Comments for “No Excuses for Iran”
posted by kittynboi on
The pathetic response from the left on this issue is sickening, and it shows that the left is not always the friend of gays.
posted by Northeast Libertarian on
Very well written, Richard.
My initial reaction when reading Scott Long’s idiotic attack on Tatchell and his gobbledygook about “imputed gay identity” is that it read like something a right-wing ex-gay group would say. . . in other words, “a gay identity” is a cultural construct and “choice” which can be made, unmade, or not made at will.
Long also slammed the Persion Gay and Lesbian Organization indirectly, which is particularly comic. There’s nothing funnier than the token gay man at a straight organization slamming a gay-rights group ON THE GROUND IN IRAN as “not understanding the issues.”
posted by jomicur on
It should also be noted that the July 19 protests were organized, as nar as I’ve been able to discover, wthout any involvement by or endorsement from HRC . There is no mention of them on HRC’s website, which is more than midly pathetic. Wouldn’t it be nice if once in a while they’d actually stand up for gay rights instead of just acting as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party–which is anxious to avoid gay rights at all costs?
posted by etjb on
(1) The HRC focus is on federal issues, and thus would not likely have a big role in international human rights.
(2) The people that have been fighting to bring global LGBT human rights issues to the attention of the west have almost ALWAYS been on the political left.
(3) The gay right continues to have blinders on when it comes to gay Iraqis, while trying to paint the gay left with a broad ‘they dont really care’ brush.
posted by kittynboi on
“”””The people that have been fighting to bring global LGBT human rights issues to the attention of the west have almost ALWAYS been on the political left.””””
Yes, they have almost always been the left. But it’s still a small section of the left. More left than right,, but the rest of the left wants no criticism of “ooother coooltooors” and just wants a multicultural circle jerk.
posted by Northeast Libertarian on
The people that have been fighting to bring global LGBT human rights issues to the attention of the west have almost ALWAYS been on the political left
Nonsense. In London, Peter Tatchell, who is nominally “leftist” has been discarded by the “mainstream left” in Britain and branded “right wing” for pursuing gay rights causes.
And the first people to make noise about this case in the USA were Justin Raimondo and Andrew Sullivan — hardly leftists — though the dyed-in-the-wool liberal Doug Ireland did follow up with some fantastic investigative reporting.
The Iran situation was broken by brave activists, and people from all sorts of political spectrums fought the system to bring the story to the fore. And as usual, the extreme left and the idiotarian right have joined hands together to oppose the truth of the matter.
posted by kittynboi on
Well, regardless of how the left in Britain view him, he is still arguably leftist based on his own positions, and what the rest of the left thinks of him is irrelevant.
Anyway, my assesment stands that the left opposes gay rights, or human rights in general, in the third world, in favor of a multicultural circle jerk.
http://toucanfiles.blogspot.com
posted by Richard J. Rosendall on
Peter Tatchell is undoubtedly a leftist. He proudly describes himself as left-wing, and has a record to prove it. He also, however, has intellectual and moral integrity, and commits the cardinal sin (among any group jealous of its orthodoxy) of criticizing people in his own camp. He also has demonstrated extraordinary nerve and courage, for example twice trying to arrest Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the second time being beaten unconscious by Mugabe’s guards.
I am writing to you from the lobby of the Hotel Orfeo in Amsterdam, where I am spending a week with my boyfriend Patrick.
posted by etjb on
kittynboi;
(1) I am sorry, but few western democratic leftists have actually taken the position that respect for different cultures means that you can not criticize them.
(2) Most Americans; irrespective of political or sexual orientation have little knowledge or interest in the world beyond their boarders. If few American LGBT people care about gays in Iran or Iraq is may not be due to thier politics.
posted by etjb on
Libertarian;
Peter Tatchell is a democratic leftist, as are the vasty majority of all people that speak out for global human rights issues.
The first people to make ‘noise’ about gay rights in Iran would be the folks behind Amnesty International LGBT campaign that started up in the late 1980’s or the early 1990s.
BTW, Iran is just one of the ‘nations of concern’ in the Middle East when it comes to LGBT human rights.
Doug has also done some great work on the plight of gay Iraqis, something that the politial right prefers to ignore.
“The Iran situation was broken by brave activists.”
Most democratic leftist GLBT activists have been aware of the ‘situation’ since the 1980s. Gay conservatives have had little interest in the issue until recently and then only as a means of justifing a neo-conservative foreign policy.
posted by kittynboi on
You aren’t sorry, you’re just being a stuck up douchebag. Did all the whining against the protests not come from the left? Or are those people who make excuses for the cesspool of the middle east and the rest of the homophobic “developing world” not leftists according to your definition?
The left needs to stop getting off on it’s Muslim fetish.
posted by Northeast Libertarian on
few western democratic leftists have actually taken the position that respect for different cultures means that you can not criticize them
You should try reading the myriad leftist periodicals which blast Peter Tatchell (including Long’s nauseating “open letter” to Tatchell) before spouting off on stuff you know nothing about.
democratic leftist. . . Gay conservatives
Spare me all the useless “positioning talk.” The phoney “political spectrum” has no real utility except as a way to manipulate weak-minded sheep into trying not to be “too liberal” or “too conservative.”
The left needs to stop getting off on it’s Muslim fetish.
Absolutely. I tire utterly of the left’s ability to hijack every gay event and turn it into a “vigil for the oppressed Palestinian people” or a “protest against Islamophobia.”
Muslims aren’t being hanged or shot or having walls toppled over them in Western society, but if you listen to their leaders, they won’t shut up about “Islamophobia” and how pervasive it is.
British Muslim Kenan Malik went searching for this supposed institutional hatred for Muslims and found that it largely is a myth:
http://www.kenanmalik.com/essays/islamophobia_prospect.html
Now contrast that to homophobia — endemic in both US and British society. The left is just doing its electoral calculus and has decided that the gays are going to vote for them anyway, so they might as well try and grab the Muslim fundy vote while they can.
posted by etjb on
“You should try reading the myriad leftist periodicals.”
I read several ‘leftist’ periodicals and have not seen a defense of homophobia. I grew up in the Middle East and have done plently of research about human rights in the Muslim world, including that nation that the gay ‘right’ seems to ignore; Iraq.
Perhaps some leftists do have a ‘festish’ with fundamentalism, but most do not. Few self-avowed and notable gay conservatives have express much sincerity or intelligence on the subject.
Bigotry against Muslims does exist. At the IGF, ‘Bobby’ seems to be rather giddy about making various outragously racist comments. The Palestinian people oaught to have their human rights respected.
Again, respect for multi-culturalism does not mean that all of the values of a given person, class, or group are equal.
“Muslims aren’t being hanged or shot or having walls toppled over them in Western society.”
I would have to see research on discrimination/harassment against citizens/immigrants of Muslim descent.
In the developed democratic western world very few (if any) people are killed due to their religion, skin color or even sexuality.
“British Muslim Kenan Malik went searching for this supposed institutional hatred for Muslims and found that it largely is a myth”
Oh well, certainly one study done by a Muslim must prove that bigotry against Muslims does not exist. Oh wait…
“Now contrast that to homophobia.”
Well, if you define evidence of bigotry as being; “[class of people] aren’t being hanged or shot or having walls toppled over them in Western society” then their is little homophobia in the developed-democratic west.
Yet, bigoty often involves much more then that. In terms of government public policy, the US is far more homophobic then the UK/EU.
posted by kittynboi on
“””” ‘Bobby’ seems to be rather giddy about making various outragously racist comments. “”””
I get the urge to do the same when I see a black person running really fast.
http://toucanfiles.blogspot.com