What's notable is that the issue has generated a vigorous debate among predominantly GLBT activists on the left: on one hand, Bill Andriette,* Pedro Carmona**, Leslie Feinberg***, Richard Kim****, Scott Long (and Human Rights Watch) *****, Joseph Massad******, Yasmin Nair*******, myself *******, and others who have variously questioned the "Iran's Gay Pogrom" story on one hand, and Peter Tatchell (and his group Outrage!), Doug Ireland, Michael Petrelis, Arsham Parsi (and his group the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization), the National Council of Resistance of Iran (i.e., MEK), and others on the other hand. The MSM in the USA has yet to pay attention to this intra-queer debate. I wonder if the MSM in Europe has.
The debate is essentially of no direct consequence to Washington, as long as the MSM pays no attention to it. Its Iran campaign does not rise or fall on it either. It does have implications for the queer left, Iranian exiles, and activists in general, however, for it can shape their perspectives on the international struggle between Iran and the multinational empire as well as the domestic struggle in Iran, which may have indirect consequence for Washington. The debate goes beyond the question of facts, important as it is, and reveals and sharpens political differences among activists.
The debate has already made one positive change: "While IGLHRC [International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission] had initially offered to coordinate a public vigil to protest the use of the death penalty as a punishment for sexually-based crimes in Iran and elsewhere, conversations with colleagues have made clear that in New York City, dialogue, not demonstrations, would be the most productive way to build longer term strategies and understandings of how best to respond to human rights violations around the world."*********
A large number of allegations about governmental persecutions of gay men in Iran and the rest of the developing world come from applicants for asylum. As the multinational empire restricts other avenues for legal immigration, such allegations have increased, and they will probably increase further in the future.
Similar debates have happened among feminists, concerning the long-standing contradictory relations between feminism, colonialism, and imperialism: some feminists opposed colonialism and imperialism on some feminist grounds; others supported on other feminist grounds. GLBT activists would do well to re-examine that history.
* Bill Andriette, "Pictures at an Execution," The Guide, October 2005, <http://www.guidemag.com/content/index.cfm?ID=250>
** Pedro Carmona, "Crónica de una manipulación," Diagnoal 20 August 2005, <https://prod.euskalherria.indymedia.org/eh/servlet/OpenMir?do=getpdf&id=22129&forIE=.pdf> and "Outrage! and the Iran Hangings: Chronicle of a Manipulation," What's Next? No.30 2005, <http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Latest/Outrage.html>
*** Leslie Feinberg, "There's No Anti-gay Pogrom in Iran" Workers World, 24 June 2006, <http://www.workers.org/2006/world/iran-0629/index.html>; "Anti-Iran Protest Misdirects LGBT Struggle," Workers World, 17 July 2006, <http://www.workers.org/2006/us/anti-iran-0720/>
**** Richard Kim, "Witnesses to an Execution," The Nation, 7 August 2005, <http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050815/kim>
***** Scott Long, "Debating Iran," Gay City News 5.30, 27 July-2 August 2006, <http://gaycitynews.com/gcn_530/debatingiran.html>
****** Joseph Andoni Massad, "Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World," Public Culture 14.2, Spring 2002, pp. 361-385, <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/public_culture/v014/14.2massad.html>. Arno Schmitt's response to Massad usefully (if acrimoniously) questions Massad's focus on discourse rather than capitalism in bringing about gradual adoption of the Western sense of homo/bi/hetero sexual identities among middle strata in urban areas in the Middle East and the rest of the world: "Gay Rights versus Human Rights: A Response to Joseph Massad," Public Culture 15.3, Fall 2003, pp. 587-591, <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/public_culture/v015/15.3schmitt.html> and <http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~arno/massad.html>. Theoretical differences aside, however, Schmitt has this to say:
<bockquote>There is a huge difference in the human rights debate between France29 and North America. Whereas in France only the individual has rights, in the U.S. and Canada the concept of minority rights dominates the public debate. Because one belongs to a disadvantages group (descendent of former slaves, descendents of pre-Columbian inhabitants, etc.) one is entitled to special protection (or even affirmative action). Whereas in France gays have rights because they are human and all human beings have the right to sexual fulfillment, to non-interference of the state into their private lives, right to form associations, freedom from police harassment etc., in the U.S. gays argue that they are born into a group. They do not demand free choice of sex partners for all, but proclaim that they are unfree: Nature forces us! Lesbians and gays form a community like Blacks and Jews; and as these lobby pro-Africa and pro-Israel, LGBT fight for those of their kind. The Moral Majority within the USA makes them fight for gay rights in Pakistan – they do it to further their argument "God created us gay" – the Pakis are means to their real aim. That is why negative results do not deter them</blockquote>
That's a more acerbic criticism of gay identity politics across borders than even Massad's.
******* Join the Queer Fist discussion listserv and see its archive: <http://www.queerfist.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss>. The debate is lively and on the whole much politer and more productive than the one on the same subject here.
******** Yoshie Furuhashi, "There Currently Is No Active Policy of Prosecution of Charges of Homosexuality in Iran," 10 July 2006, <http://montages.blogspot.com/2006/07/there-currently-is-no-active-policy-of.html>
********* International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, "July 19 Community Forum on Human Rights, Iran, and LGBT Advocacy" Press Release, 17 July 2006, <http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/section.php?id=5&detail=650> -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>