ATLmalcontent

Outing the Gay Media

Bravo to gay journalist Doug Ireland, who calls LOGO (the "proud" home of queer stereotypes) to task for ignoring the systematic murder of homosexuals in Iran:

I just watched your half-hour end-of-the-year “news” review on LOGO. And I was truly appalled when, in your oh-so-brief inclusion of Ahmadinejad’s infamous “no homosexuals in Iran” statement among the top ten stories of the year, there was not a word about the horrific, lethal campaign of persecution of LGBT people in Iran by its theocratic regime.

Coming just days after Iran’s hanging of 21-year-old Makwan Moloudzadeh — for having had sex (at the age of 13) with other boys his own age — aroused worldwide revulsion, your glaring omission of any word about the skein of daily repression which same-sexers face in Iran — Internet entrapment, raids on private homes and parties, arrests, torture, imprisonment, lashings, forced sex-change operations, executions, and the rest — is stunning and incomprehensible.

Your broadcast found time to talk about Ellen’s dog (twice) and about the feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. O’Donnell (twice) and other entertainment trivialities, but about the unspeakable persecutions visited on gay people in Iran you and your colleagues were utterly silent. By the way, I have yet to hear a word about the hanging of Makwan on your air. And still you call this show-biz fluff you’re doing “news”?

Unless it's trivial, a majority of the gay community tends not to care. To repeat:

Your broadcast found time to talk about Ellen’s dog (twice) and about the feud between Mr. Trump and Ms. O’Donnell (twice) and other entertainment trivialities, but about the unspeakable persecutions visited on gay people in Iran you and your colleagues were utterly silent.

Students For Democracy

Revealing, isn't it, that student activists in the U.S. tend to be faux radicals more sympathetic to Marxists and autocrats than the democracies which indulge their naive revolutionary fantasies. Fortunately, they are but marginal characters.

I suspect history will judge Iranian 's college students much more favorably. They continue to bravely lead the charge for reform in their country, with much at stake. We owe them our respect and support -- those who rationalize or even apologize for the actions of fundamentalist cretins like Ahmadinejad are advised to listen to what these students have to say.

Iranian students staged a new demonstration at Tehran University on Sunday, damaging the main gate to allow outsiders into the campus and denouncing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, news agencies reported.
The protesters chanted slogans against the president and carried banners calling for the release of three fellow students who have been held since May in a high-profile case, the Fars news agency and state-run IRNA report.

...

The demonstration on Sunday was at least the second within a week at Tehran University after dozens of students held a similar protest on Tuesday.

Mehdi Arabshahi, a member of the central board of the Office to Foster Unity, said that 1,500 people joined the latest protest, although there was no confirmation of this figure from Iranian media.

Arabshahi told AFP that university security officials had initially shut the main gate in a bid to prevent large numbers gathering for the protest.

"But the students forced their way in and broke the gate so that others could enter.

"They protested against the detention of the students, the oppressive policies of the government and advocated rights for all Iranians," he added, saying that the participants included liberals and ethnic Kurds.

The Final Days of Makwan Moloudzadeh

Death may have come as a relief to Makwan, who reportedly was tortured into a confession, convicted without any evidence and humiliated as he awaited his execution.

"The only witnesses who had given statements to the intelligence police saying they had been raped by Makwan came into court and repudiated those statements, saying that they had been extracted under torture," the only Iranian journalist to have covered Makwan's case extensively, Mitra Khalatbari of the newspaper Etemade Melli, told this reporter by telephone from Tehran.

Khalatbari, who covered the story for months and courageously agreed to speak on the record to Gay City News, added, "Makwan himself told the judge that his admission to the Intelligence Police that he had had anal sex with one boy in 1999 was also obtained by torture, and that he now denied it and proclaimed his innocence."

Prior to his execution, Makwan engaged in a hunger strike of ten days to protest the physical and psychological torture he'd been subjected to while in custody to make him confess.

"There was no other evidence," Khalatbari, speaking through a translator, told Gay City News.

"The judge did not bother to order medical examinations to see if rape had taken place, nor did he bother to order medical examinations to see if torture of the witnesses had taken place," she continued.

"The judge's verdict of guilty, and his sentence of Makwan to death, was based purely on his personal speculation," she added.

As punishment for his hunger strike, Makwan - after having had his head completely shaved, a grave insult in Iranian culture - was paraded by police through the streets of his home town of Paveh on the back of a donkey, as police permitted passersby to hurl insults and invective at him and pelt him with stones, eggs, and other objects.

Khalatbari said Makwan was executed at a secret location, without prior notification. He never got a chance to say goodbye to his family.

(tip of the cap to Queerty, one of the few gay news sources, online or off, that's bothered to follow Makwan's case)

"We Only Have a Few Hours To Save Makwan's Life"

A few weeks ago many were surprised to learn that an Iranian judge had suspended the death sentence against Makwan Moloudzadeh (charged with homosexuality). I guess it was naive to expect sanity from Neanderthal thugs -- the case has been re-examined by a higher court and the sentence upheld.

“There is a need for immediate international protest action from the Italian Goverment, the European Parliament and civilized society. We have to make Iran listen to our request for Marwan to be spared. Marwan is innocent, he has been sentenced to death for his homosexuality”. This is the appeal launched by Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, the leaders of the EveryOne Group, which recently fought this year to prevent the deportation from Great Britain of the Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakhsh. “We hoped Iran would show some compassion for Marwan” they continue “but the campaign for Makwan’s life carried out by thousands of GLBT activists all over the world has been ignored. We are also amazed at how some people, even in the international press, defined Makwan a “child offender”, when he was only a child himself when he loved a boy of the same age.”

“Makwan’s family are distraught” says Ahmad Rafat of EveryOne. “Any day now could be Makwan’s last, because the Iranian judges only notify the time and place of the prisoner’s execution the night before it takes place.”

I'd encourage you to speak out, but I'm afraid it's too late.

Why We Speak Out

To those who say we shouldn't criticize Iran, I say don't you look foolish right about now.

This is truly great news:

Amid international criticism ignited by a crusading journalist, Iran’s chief justice has spared the life of a young man who had been sentenced to be executed as the result of a cousin’s accusations of homosexual acts years earlier.

Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Sharudi nullified the imminent death sentence of Makvan Mouloodzadeh, 21, for violations of Iranian law and Islamic teachings, Saeid Eghbali, the defendant’s attorney, told msnbc.com this week.

Had Sharudi not intervened, Mouloodzadeh would have joined hundreds of his fellow Iranians, some of them just children when they committed their alleged crimes, who are hanged each year in jail yards and public squares. The executions are often carried out via a method designed to enhance and prolong their suffering: A rope is placed around the condemned person’s neck and he or she is hoisted from the ground with an industrial crane.

I'm stunned, pleasantly so. Let this be a lesson to keep the pressure on human rights violators, wherever they are. It's clear now the world listens.

Please Forgive Us, Mahmoud

Some of Columbia University's "progressive" professors say they are still embarrassed by President Lee Bollinger's introduction of Ahmadinejad when the Iranian theocrat visited in September.

Unhappiness with that confrontation has simmered on campus ever since, and many professors said it provided the main impetus for the faculty petition.

“I think for most people the Ahmadinejad incident was an occasion that brought out a lot of discomfort,” said Wayne Proudfoot, a religion professor. “It seemed clear to me that the language he used in introducing Ahmadinejad was intended to, and had the effect of, placating, appeasing and being a message to conservative critics.”

Independent Gay Forum's Stephen H. Miller lets them have it:

There was a time when speaking up for those oppressed by petty and cruel dictators was of concern to liberal academe, but today anti-Americanism trumps all on the "progressive" (sic) left. And so if Ahmadinejad hates Bush, he must be a good guy, right?

Gays Deserve Death, Iranian Politician Says

President Ahmadinejad claims there are no homosexuals in his country, and he may be right. As a prominent government minister has confirmed, Iran routinely murders gay people.

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learned.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

Some people think such stories should be ignored, lest they create "ill will" against the Iranian regime.

I wonder what Sharia’s victims -- listed below -- would say about that:

2005

— Homosexuals Farbod Mostaar and Ahmad Chooka sentenced to death. Iran said Chooka had kidnapped, knifed and raped a student

— A woman called Soghra was sentenced to stoning for adultery and being an accomplice to her husband’s murder

— Two men executed in public after being found guilty of a homosexual relationship. A newspaper said they were convicted of sodomy, rape and kidnapping

— Zhila Izadi, 13, sentenced to stoning after becoming pregnant with her brother’s child

2006

— Malek Ghorbany sentenced to stoning for adultery

— Leila Qomi sentenced to stoning for adultery and assisting a man who killed her husband. He received 100 lashes

2007

— Jafar Kiana stoned for adultery. His female lover Mokarrameh Ebrahimi sentenced to the same fate

(compiled by Britian's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is no doubt trying to curry favor with the Bush Administration)

His Name Is Makwan Moloudzadeh

When I first posted about the gay Iranian youth (now 21) sentenced to death in Iran for alleged homosexual relations, there were only a handful of other sites publicizing Moloudzadeh's plight.

But a week later, a Google search turns up about 15,000 mentions of the Iranian Kurd, a massive increase (still nothing on the Human Rights Campaign site). While some people think this story should be ignored, lest we encourage "ill will" against Ahmadinejad's regime, I'm encouraged that scores of bloggers disagree. We owe solidarity, at the very least, to gays and lesbians persecuted around the world. Truthfully there's little hope of saving Moloudzadeh's life, but silence is complicity.

Sign this online petition protesting the planned execution. Then encourage others to do the same.

Is Amnesty International Currying Favor With Bush?

I hesitated posting this, as I welcome divergent viewpoints on the Malcontent. But this comment from Chamblee54 is so fraught with moral equivalence and unsubstantiated accusations that I felt compelled to share it, mainly because it illustrates how an (understandable) distrust of Bush has led some to adopt conclusions so irrational -- and so dangerous -- that they must be rebuked.

Here's the comment in question (in response to the post about the pending execution of a gay Iranian):

The headline of this piece is not accurate. Mr. Moloudzaden is 21, not 14. The alleged rape occured in 1999, when both Mr. Moloudzadeh and the reputed victim were 13. Now, this raises all sorts of questions, which go above and beyond the (fairly certain) mistreatment of Gays in Iran...even when Mr. Ahmadinejad's translator said these peeps don't exist. To execute someone eight years after the fact,for a crime committed at age 13, is pretty outrageous. Even for a rowdy regime like the one in charge in Iran. I suspect there is something about this we are not being told. Is Mr. Moloudzadeh a dissident, or the relative of dissidents? Is he accused of something else? Why would a government pull a charge like that out of the archives? If there is more to this story, then it does not speak well for Amnesty International to be publicizing it. Maybe they are the organization that needs a bit of scrutiny. Maybe they are trying to curry favor with the Government in Washington. There is little doubt that some elements of our government would like to see military action against Iran. We are in a pre war phase, where one of the goals is to create ill will against the enemy du jour. While it is true that our government will not nuke Iran to save gays ( We destroyed that village to save it), stories like this will create ill will against the government there, and could, in the long run, contribute to military action against Iran. And yes, this action would kill a lot of civilians. If we really want to help the gays in Iran, maybe we should insure that Amnesty International is not exploiting them for their own purposes.

He's right about one thing: I had bad information about Moloudzadeh's current age. My apologies, though that changes nothing. Certainly it's more abhorrent to see a 14-year-old executed, but the state-sanctioned murder of anyone, just because of their sexual orientation, is beyond disturbing.

Otherwise ...

Amnesty requires scrutiny? Would you be saying that if they publicized a similar incident in, say, Saudi Arabia (one of our alleged alllies)? There are unanswered questions, but that doesn't change the basic premise, nor does it in any way let Iran off the hook.

Of course, you're not entirely convinced of the "fairly certain" mistreatment of gays there. It's certain. We have evidence. See the photograph? Your cynicism is distasteful at best.

And then, your most outrageous charge: "Maybe they are trying to curry favor with the Government in Washington." Amnesty was one of the first organizations to condemn U.S detention facilities in Iraq and elsewhere. Now all the sudden they're auditioning to be a propaganda arm of a lame duck administration?

You argue, in essence, that we should say nothing about human rights abuses in Iran because it might create "ill will against the government there." Good. Ahmadinejad is a religious fanatic with visions of grandeur. I agree it's unwise to beat the war drums now, but Iran is not benign. Wouldn't you be at least a little concerned if they acquired nuclear weapons?

Apparently not. Of bigger concern is the alleged exploitation of gays in Iran by Amnesty International, an absurd allegation leveled without any evidence. Someone with such a warped world view need not advise me on how best to help persecuted homosexuals worldwide.

Feel free to rebut.

If a 14-Year-Old Boy Is Hanged In Iran, Does Anybody Hear it?

Another homosexual is about to be executed in Iran. This time it's a 14-year-old boy, sentenced to death by a judge even though two of the people who pressed charges against him withdrew their claims.

Child offender Makwan Moloudzadeh, an Iranian Kurd, is believed to be at risk of imminent execution. He has reportedly been convicted of anal sex for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old boy. Makwan Moloudzadeh was aged 13 at the time of the alleged offence. His death sentence has been passed to the Office for the Implementation of Sentences and he is due to be executed in public, near his home. ...

Prior to his trial and conviction, on or around 7 October 2006 Makwan Moloudzadeh was reportedly paraded through the streets of Paveh riding on a donkey, with his head shaved. People in the street shouted abuse and threw things at him.

(More on this from Amnesty International, which calls Iran "the last executioner of children.")

Predictably, the Petty Queer Establishment is silent, ignoring Amnesty's call for urgent action. The Human Rights Campaign, America's "preeminent" gay rights organization, doesn't even mention the story on their Web site. Apparently they're more concerned that an anti-gay gospel singer appeared at an Obama rally.

Shouldn't they at least acknowledge the total absence of human rights for gay Iranians? Just asking.

(Also found no mention on the International Lesbian and Gay Association site -- plenty about diversity seminars, however. A Google search on Makwan Moloudzadeh turned up no mentions by any gay and lesbian organization; only Amnesty and a handful of bloggers seem interested.)