News Flash: Ahmadinejad is a Blow Hard
Ever since Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia, all I’ve heard about it is his outlandish claim that Iran doesn’t have any gay people. Everyone was quick to point out how this is the opposite of true. Of course people living under brutal, oppressive authoritarian rule aren’t exactly forthcoming about their sexual preferences. Thank you, Captain Obvious bloggers.
My bigger issue (because his ideas about Iran’s gay population are sadly the least of the problems with Iran) is some of the ridiculous responses floating around. Most notably, this article from The Guardian enlightens us that Iran is second only to Thailand for sex changes. Why would I have a problem with this? Because gender and sexual identity (which are not interchangeable) have nothing to do with being gay. Yet mainstream straight culture always makes this reckless assumption, giving an already difficult and complicated process more caveats.
Changing your sex doesn’t make you gay. It doesn’t make you necessarily even the tiniest bit gay. While yes, a lot of transgendered people do identify as queer, it’s wrong to assume sexual identity is linked to gender. I’m not transgendered, so I can’t profess to know what it’s like growing up in a body that feels wrong. But I do know what it’s like to grow up with identity expectations imposed on you that feel absolutely defective.
Iran’s choice to allow these operations is in no way reflective of their barbaric homophobic policies. In fact, keeping sexual identity and sexual preference independent of each other (granted in a backwards, sort of hush hush pretend we don’t do it way) is maybe one of the few things I think Iran has almost right.
I hope things get better for the people of Iran, but I spend more time hoping things get better for the people of the United States. I wish instead of worrying about the obvious hypocrisy of Iran’s President, the mainstream media would concern itself with our own human rights record. Gay and transgendered people in America are still second-class citizens. Each of our steps forward are still met with two steps back, and I still have fewer rights than my neighbor.
Salon has probably the best take on the whole mess I’ve seen so far.
