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DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Tue Aug 12, 2014, 08:16 AM Aug 2014

Iran's New Gay Executions

Jay Michaelson

Conservatives may be the ones voicing the loudest outrage at the hanging of two gay Iranian men—but not because they’ve suddenly become supporters of LGBT human rights.

The tragic hanging of two “sodomites” in Iran may seem, in theory, like an obvious cause for U.S. concern and U.S. action. (Sign a petition! Demand human rights!) Yet in practice, those most attentive to LGBT concerns may be the least eager to pick this fight.

As Nina Strochlic reported in these pages Sunday, the two men, Abdullah Ghavami Chahzanjiru and Salman Ghanbari Chahzanjiri, were hanged in southern Iran on August 6, possibly for consensual sodomy. Their deaths are part of a wave of executions in Iran, with more than 400 in the first half of 2014 alone, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights.

We do not know for certain that they were executed for being gay—one Iranian source says they were, another is vague about their “crimes” but calls them “immoral villains.” If these men were hanged for consensual homosexuality, however, this could be another LGBT headache for the Obama administration, which has been trying to walk a tightrope between LGBT human rights on one end and international politics on the other.

Despite Iran’s state anti-Semitism, the recent arrest of U.S. journalists, and the continued oppression of women, the Obama administration has been attempting a rapprochement with the Iranian regime. Fending off Iran hawks in Congress and the D.C. punditocracy, the administration has argued for a policy of constructive engagement, pursuing diplomacy over military action to halt Iran’s nuclear program. The execution of two gay men, while it may not be surprising, certainly doesn’t make that “engagement” any easier.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/12/iran-s-new-gay-executions.html

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Highlight:

Iran's New Gay Executions (Original Post) DonViejo Aug 2014 OP

but of course we are haters if we dare point out that Israel is an island dsc Aug 2014 #1

This thread demonstrates that the DUers who affect a passion about human rights are often selective Bluenorthwest Aug 2014 #2

This is a bizarre article. Behind the Aegis Aug 2014 #3

dsc

(52,166 posts)

1. but of course we are haters if we dare point out that Israel is an island

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Aug 12, 2014, 08:45 AM

Aug 2014

of respect for gays in a toxic see of hatred.

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)

2. This thread demonstrates that the DUers who affect a passion about human rights are often selective

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Aug 12, 2014, 09:29 AM

Aug 2014

in the humans whose rights they are concerned with.

Behind the Aegis

(53,991 posts)

3. This is a bizarre article.

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Tue Aug 12, 2014, 02:47 PM

Aug 2014

Gay men are executed for being gay, and this asshole uses it to bash Obama and gay rights activists?! Of course conservatives would use anything to attack Obama's stance in Iran, including being "concerned" about gay people being executed, that is as revealing as an article claiming the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. No shit!

The phenomenon of invoking LGBT equality as a justification for American foreign policies, which theorist Jasbir Puar calls “homonationalism,” has been around for several years. (Puar might prefer the term “imperialism.”) Even as conservatives fight LGBT equality at home, Puar says, they champion it overseas—as long as it serves their interests to do so.

Say what now?! I have never seen politicians raise the rainbow flag as a flag of war.

Moreover, says Puar, Americans frequently impose their own conceptions of sexual and gender identity onto other cultures, stomping out indigenous ways of thinking about sexuality and gender, and perpetuating the myth that sexual diversity is a Western invention. Ironically, by demanding tolerance of “homosexuality,” Americans can inhibit the tolerance of forms of sexuality and gender identity that are long-standing traditions in non-Western culture.

Ok, that is just a bit of stupid. Why is homosexuality in quotes and how does promoting equality squelch other " forms of sexuality and gender identity that are long-standing traditions in non-Western culture"? And those would be what?

I am used to seeing GLBT issues used as a political football. Some self-professed liberals using it to attack something they don't like (Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.), or using it to claim GLBT are "self absorbed" (single issue), or making claims that minimize the gains/losses of GLBT rights in other places.

Then again, maybe he's on to something. Seems too many think GLBT issues are passé and a "done deal" here, so no need to worry about "those peoples'" rights elsewhere.

His other articles are just as strange. Seemingly 'gay positive,' but having a strange odor to them.

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