This has me upset, outraged, and disturbed.
Less than 24 hours ago, atlmalcontent professed an agreement with my position on gay marriage as an issue, and it is the issue that has gotten me so upset, that brings us to agreement again; in a big way. There is a boy about to be executed for alleged homosexual acts in Iran, and there is an almost chilling silence (or worse (??), only a simple passing mention — which I admit, is at least SOMETHING), coming from the gay rights organizations and gay mouthpieces of the world. How is this possible? I thought that our gay rights organizations like the HRC stood for equalizing and gaining HUMAN rights for gays and lesbians everywhere? Perhaps it is more accurate then, to say that they are focused more on gaining rights for gays and lesbians here in America only? I wish it weren’t the case, but one can only surmise that the apparent silence with regards to this boy’s pending execution, definitely suggests that this is a more accurate mission statement. So I wonder, why aren’t we fighting for every gay and lesbian person in the world; or for that matter, the freedom and equality of everyone? I know that it is important that we focus energy on finding equality for ourselves, but it is clear that we need to widen our focus, because acts against any homosexual as awful as this, are acts against all of us — because it could BE any of us.
Instantly, when I heard about this case, I was reminded of when those two boys were executed in Iran for the very same thing a while back, and how they were very publicly hanged for their “crimes”. That image is still burned in my mind, and thinking of it turns my stomach to knots, and brings tears to my eyes. In addition to that memory, to think that someone was/is going to be hanged for doing something that I take for granted is indeed scarily humbling and intensely frightening. What’s worse, in my mind, is to think that we don’t seem very concerned about the fact that it is happening again. Why aren’t we all up in arms about this case, as we supposedly were before (because really, what was done about it last time?)? Could it be, that we are waiting for the kid to be swinging from the rafters before we give it a passing glance? WTF? Why aren’t the human rights organizations outraged, and calling for action from the government? Those questions are burning me up inside, and because of a lack of attention, I can have no answers.
Even more, part of me shudders to think that it could (at least in some small part) be because the boy is Iranian, and we are currently being drilled by our government to believe that Iranians are our enemies, linking the boy with our concept of an enemy (and therefore, lack of care if he dies(?)). I really hope that isn’t so, but it is swimming in my mind nonetheless. The lack of any concern has me reeling, and looking for any answers, to be quite honest.
The point here is this: there is an awful crime that has happened before about to happen again; and it should not go unchecked. The Iranian government should not be able to commit such heinous acts of violence against anyone, and someone should say something, and at a bare minimum, focus some attention on this situation. This represents the very problem with only focusing on “some” civil liberties in “some” places for “some” people; if you go somewhere else, in the world where you are not protected (or worse, for those that have no choice but to be born gay in those places), and it means that you have done nothing to help the global cause of equality for all gays all over the world. Being safe in America, and able to marry, does not protect gays in other parts of the world; and that is something that should concern us. We should care that gays and lesbians in other countries are KILLED for what we take for granted.
I for one am hoping that something is done, and this CHILD does not have to die. I hope that our gay rights organizations speak up, and show some consideration for what this child is going through; because it could just as easily be one of our own… but again, the fact is, that he IS one of our own. This boy’s struggle for life should really shake us to the core, and make us realize how good we have it here; and challenge us to make it better everywhere… but for whatever reason, it isn’t, and that really bothers me.
Please, do what this post is doing, and direct as much attention as you can to this situation. I heard about this from atlmalcontent, and by voicing our outrage, we are forcing this to be discussed. If one person tells someone else, this can go somewhere; I believe that. Attention to heinous acts of violence like this, can hopefully make changes happen; and it is clear that we are the ones who shine the light on it. Please, don’t remain silent.
My heart goes out to this boy and his family. I can only hope that he is saved. This is a dark, dark day for gay rights worldwide; unfortunately, it has happened before, and will probably happen again. What will it take for us to stand up and unite?
Well said. Bravo. Your passion on this issue is totally justified and definitely apppreciated. (BTW, I just checked: still not a word on the HRC Web site.)
Suddenly I have hope there will be peace in the Middle East.
atlmalcontent, thanks for alerting me of it; it is obvious why I didn’t know before. Damn “news”.
Wow… I was hoping to share some hope with you in the form of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (http://www.iglhrc.org), but their site has no mention of it either.
This is why you should be very careful to support our efforts AGAINST Islamic Extremism instead of recklessly taking their side.
This is horrible to think about! What is really sad is there are several countries where homosexual acts are against the law and violators can be killed. I just heard Staceyann Chin talking about this on Oprah the other day. She had fled her home (Jamaica) as she was a lesbian and was scared she would be killed. According to her the government tied pedophilia with being homosexual so that if you were deemed homosexual you were looked upon as a pedophile. The world needs to be educated in order to overcome this. As long as you have governments being run by people who are not educated on subjects such as homosexuality, these atrocities will continue.
In America, we have made great advances, but there is still so much more that needs to be done. When you consider that a lot of people (at least before the Shrub administration) worldwide looked to America for examples in human rights it is sad that we have not advanced more. It was just in 1944 that homosexual acts were decriminalized. We still have a long road to travel to make things the way the should be!
Many straights have such an instinctive revulsion to homosexuality that this will not be an easy thing to do. In school I always found it interesting that it seemed to predominantly come from people who were not in my math classes. So stupidity is a factor in this, but nonetheless I always saw a lot of this as being instinctive, though possibly a reaction formation, similar to many types of racism (”at least I’m better than THOSE people”).
Not everyone’s convinced that homosexuals are being persecuted in Iran:
http://atlmalcontent.typepad.com/atlmalcontent/2007/11/is-amnesty-inte.html
bugboy, I don’t align myself with extremists. Never have, never will. Interesting point about people being stupid if they don’t know math, though… I personally don’t want to open that can of worms, however.
atlmalcontent, what should be said is exactly what you pointed out; regardless if he is 21 or 14, he is being hanged for being homosexual (actually, for homosexual acts). This is wrong no matter what. It’s strange the justification people can find in things sometimes.
HRC is mostly a D.C. lobby group, so they will probably never say much about international affairs. If you want to really be outraged, you should do some googling on how gays are being slaughtered left and right in Iraq. In Iraq the US supposedly has a presence. I blogged about it awhile back, I think it’s only gotten worse.
It doesn’t matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, the situation involving Makwan Moloudzadeh is a horrible one. It is extremely depressing to think that in this modern day and age people act like they still live in the dark ages. And I’m not talking just about Iran but here in the US as well.