Best Gay Blogs » Iran

Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees

James — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:00:27 +0000

Arsham Parsi, a gay Iranian activist, fled Iran for his life in 2005. He settled in Canada in 2006 and founded IRQR, an NGO that helps LGBTs flee Iran or fight their deportation back to certain death.
In early 2005, Arsham Parsi was engaged in perhaps the most hazardous profession in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Then a 24-year-old native of Shiraz, Iran’s sixth-largest city, Mr. Parsi was working secretly in the city of his birth as a gay activist promoting LGBT rights in the Islamic Republic.

Read more about Arsham Parsi and an interview with at: Digital Journal!

No Homosexuals, Adulterers or Other Maleficents

James — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:15:15 +0000

For the past year and more, I and others in the LGBT press and bloggers have been covering the inhumanity which is being perpetrated against members of the LGBT community in both Iraq and Iran.

For over a year, I have had a communication relationship with Ali Hili, a spokesman based in the UK for the advocacy group Iraqi LGBT.

Were it not for Ali many of us who write about LGBT issues and rights would not know of the plight which LGBTs face day in and day out not only in Iraq, but also Iran and a great deal of the Middle East.

Unlike some other reporters, writers and bloggers, I am protective of and do not disclose exactly where Ali is based, as he has had countless death threats and for all intents and purposes has a price on his head.

The Iraqi LGBT organization itself is based in London and accepts donations to help in a modern day underground railroad which moves LGBTs from place to place in Iraq for their own protection until they can get out of the country.

Read the rest of this post and more at FOCUS!

Israel Recruits Gay Community

James — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:00:56 +0000

Israel is stepping up its public relations effort to discredit Iran within the international community, and part of its new campaign focuses on Tehran’s abuse of human rights and sponsorship of terrorism.

“We have to lay the foundation in the world, and particularly in Europe, in order to be able to take harsher steps against Iran, especially in the economic sector,” said one senior political source in Jerusalem.

The new campaign, to be overseen by the Foreign Ministry, aims to appeal to people who are less concerned with Iran’s nuclear aspirations and more fearful of its human rights abuses and mistreatment of minorities, including the gay and lesbian community.

Read the rest at Haaretz.com!

Iran’s Gay Holocaust

James — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:00:56 +0000

If such a thing could be called a Gay Genocide, then that is exactly what is happening today in Islamist Iran. It has been the policy of the Islamic Republic since its inception in 1979. In 2005, President Ahmadinejad jacked this barbaric policy way up.
Though the term Gay Genocide may not be entirely apropos, the term Gay Holocaust in Iran could not be more so. Since the Shiite extremists in the Islamic Republic of Iran first seized power in 1979, their regime has been a living hell for all of the Iranian people. Without exception.

Read the rest at Digital Journal!