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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (244088)	10/5/2007 12:59:37 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

Then let me help you and bring the discussion back to the topic. The quick answer is that unless you actually stalk a person (and bring over 3 other buddies of yours willing to follow you around) and then actually catch them in the act, then there is no way you can tell if a person in ME is homosexual. Unless of course if the person divulges such an info or otherwise acts in overtly "gay" fashion. This is one of the ironies of life in the middle east. The emphasis on ultra-conservative and puritanical values means that men and women have sever limitations on interacting with the opposite sex and this ironically means that homosexuals have a much easier time than heterosexuals, so long as they observe a minimal amount of discretion. Which brings us back to what Ahmadinejad said, “We do not have homosexuals in Iran of the kind you have in your country.” In other words, homosexuality in the US is an omnipresent social and political issue which crops up in almost every discourse and debate pertaining to American society and politics. And By contrast, homosexuality is a non-issue in Iran and is considered an uncommon perversion. From the viewpoint of penal law, too, it is does not receive much attention as the requirements for a sentence (four eye-witnesses, who have actually seen the details of the act) are so astringent as to make punishment almost impossible. There is no spin involved here. It is just the matter of very different cultural contexts. The bottom line is that gays may have more specific legal rights here (e.g. anti-discrimination laws), but they have an easier life there because the social norms are in their favor. Incidentally, Iranian clerics readily acknowledge and supports the rights of homosexuals to undergo gender change operation, which I think would surprise many people here. ST