Together Against Homosexuality Defiance

Author: Rezvan Moghadam

Until 25 years ago, homosexuality was considered a disease. A few years ago, only four letters were commonly used to group different sexuality and sexuality minorities [1]. With the advancement in medicine and genetics in 1997, the World Health Organization[2] removed homosexuality from its list of diseases. In 2005, the United Nations declared May 17th as International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. Today, we are witnessing the expansion of the language to represent a different group called the “gay community”, so that in a short time a few more letters were added to introduce this social group. [3]The language used to describe gender and sexual spectrums has grown, and new terms have been added that are still evolving.

This day is an opportunity to raise awareness and broach the “LGBT” community’s demands. It is an opportunity to fight the spread of hatred against homosexuals.

On this day, institutions and organizations defending gender identities try to share the discrimination and threats they are always faced with by holding seminars, conferences, lectures and producing educational content. They try to raise the awareness about the systematic pressure they are facing in some conservative, traditional, and religious societies, to educate about the rights of this part of society, and to demand the recognition of their equal rights.

Homosexuality or homophobia is an irrational fear, hatred or disgust towards homosexuals or bisexuals. Anti-transgender is also an irrational fear, hatred or disgust towards transgender people. Because the term homophobia is widely known, it is often used comprehensively to refer to the fear of hatred and distaste to LGBT people.

Transgender is used to describe a wide range of sexual identities: including transgender people, bisexuals and heterosexuals, people who are identified as the third sex, and those who are perceived as unusual sex. Transgender women are identified as women, but are placed in the male category at birth. Transgender men are also identified as male, but are classified as female at birth.

In most societies, only male-female polarity is still acceptable, and members of the LGBTQ community are forced to be included in either male or female group by hormone injection, electric shock, or surgery. Some transgender people seek sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy to achieve their true sexual identity, while others oppose surgery or hormone therapy and want society to accept them as they are. Forcing LGBTQ people to change their sexual orientation is contrary to human rights and can cause serious harm to a person. What needs to change is the attitude of people in society towards LGBTQ people and the recognition of their rights.

In this regard, one of the Stop “honor” Killings Campaign’s goals from beginning is to raise awareness about LGBTQ rights and to eliminate the hatred toward them. Since LGBTQ people are exposed to the most severe forms of violence, namely “honor” killing, we chose not to use “stop killing Women” when choosing the name of the campaign, because otherwise the LGBTQ community would be excluded, while we are witnessing the “honor” killing of these people inside and outside Iran.

LGBTQ people in Iran are under pressure and threatened from several angles. Family, society, law, and religion. Islamic Republic laws, has criminalized the relationship between the two homosexuals. For example, Article 234 of the Islamic Penal Code defines one hundred lashes for the subject preparator and the death penalty for the object preparator in sextual act. This law, which emphasizes the activity of men, punishes the object preparator with death because in this sense, masculinity has been damaged.

Article 238 of the Islamic Penal Code deals with adultery or a relationship between two women. According to this law, one hundred lashes for both lesbians will apply. If the flogging is carried out three times, the death penalty will be carried out for the fourth time.

In addition to legal cases, family behavior is also violent. Sometimes families use such degrading behavior and literature against their LGBTQ children that some of them are forced to commit suicide. Sexual identity is a deep and private feeling of each person about their own gender that needs to be accepted by the family and society. Blaming LGBTQ people not only violates the human rights of these people, but also promotes hatred and opposition and promotes homophobia.

Human rights are universal. All human beings, regardless of gender, skin color, place of residence, should enjoy these rights. All governments, regardless of their political, economic and cultural mechanisms, have a legal duty to promote human rights for all and support all. All laws that violate the human rights of a group of people in society must be removed from the law.


[1] : L، G، B و T.

[2] WHO

[3] L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. + Plus sign to cover anyone else who does not belong to this group

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