Throughout history, the prime stimuli maintaining LGBTQ+ oppression have been the destructive doctrines and judgments radiating from primarily orthodox and fundamentalist religious communities.
Individuals and organizations have utilized “religion” to justify the marginalization, harassment, denial of rights, persecution, oppression, and murder of entire groups of people based on their identities.
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Throughout history, people have applied their texts and legal statutes – sometimes in tandem and at other times used selectively – to establish and maintain hierarchical positions of power, domination, and privilege over individuals and groups targeted by these texts and codes.
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We have seen this throughout the Christian world, from Roman Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius to the Spanish Inquisition, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Colonial America, and Nazi Germany all the way to the present.
Tyrants in some Islamic countries also justify the oppression of LGBTQ+ people under Sharia Law, which holds homosexuality illegal and punishable by death.
ISIS combatants are conducting a war on the West, on women, and on religious minorities. They are also actively fighting a horrific war against LGBTQ+ people by tossing people suspected of engaging in same-sex sexuality (primarily men) from high rooftops as others below pelt them with rocks.
During the heightened and continuing tensions in the Middle East, Iran has come to the attention of the world community as it supplies financial aid and armaments to its proxies (including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis) who are launching bombs and lethal drones in attempts to bury the state of Israel.
In a metaphorical sense, the repressive Iranian regime has launched a deadly war on its own citizens to the point of execution. Let us not forget that since Iran’s revolution, which replaced the Shah with an orthodox theocracy, many segments of the population have experienced repression under Iranian Sharia law, including women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans residents.
Even same-sex sexuality between consenting partners in private is defined as a crime.
Iranian law condemns men involved in sexually penetrative acts (sodomy or lavat) with punishments ranging from flogging to death, and so-called non-penetrative acts (tafkhiz, “placing of a man’s sexual organ between another man’s thighs or buttocks” – Article 235 of the country’s penal code) with flogging.
Iran’s Legal Code Article 237 prescribes the punishment of between 31 to 74 lashes for “homosexuality of the male human [shown through] sexual conduct that falls short of lavat and tafkhiz such as kissing or lustful touching.” Article 237 also provides this equally to “the female human.” After the fourth non-penetrative “offense,” the penalty is death.
Women convicted of engaging in same-sex sexuality (mosahegheh) may be made to undergo flogging with 100 lashes. And also, following the fourth conviction, they too are eligible for the death penalty (Articles 136 and 236). Defined under Article 238 of the Code, mosahegheh is when a woman “places her sexual organ on another woman’s sexual organ.”
As many as 7,000 homosexuals have been executed since the 1980s.
There are many examples. In a high-profile public execution, two gay Iranian teenagers, 18 and 17 years old, were hung in the streets of Iran on July 19, 2005, in Edalat (Justice Square) in Mashbad, Iran.
Reports of the widespread repression of homosexuals in Iran have been verified by Human Rights Watch and the Iranian Student News Agency.
According to Human Rights Watch, “Iran’s sexual minorities, especially those who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), are victimized both by state and private actors in part because those actors know they can get away with it.”
Following the Islamic Revolution, transgender identities and expression were also classified as crimes. However, in 1986 the government decided to reclassify trans people as “heterosexual” if the person underwent gender confirmation (formerly known as “sex reassignment”) surgery. From the perspective of the Iranian government, transgender identities are something that can be “cured” with surgery.
As such, today Iran stands as one of the countries performing the most gender confirmation surgeries in the world, second only to Thailand. Iranian trans people, however, still suffer frequent harassment and persecution.
Repressive regimes around the world currently and throughout history have scapegoated, oppressed, and murdered LGBTQ+ people. The time has long since passed that we speak out against repression in all of its forms.
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