Gays In Iran: A Personal Perspective

by Anonymous

Coming out of the closet seems to be a major issue among many homosexuals to feel comfortable with their lives. However, imagine being confused about your sexuality while living in a nation where consensual sex between two people is subject to capital punishment. In Iran, sex between two homosexuals is punishable by death.

Throughout its 30-year history, the Islamic Republic of Iran has expressed hostility toward the gay and lesbian community not just to the people of Iran, but to those around the world as well. It is not uncommon to hear a cleric during Friday prayers in a mosque, where brotherly and sisterly love is supposed to be preached, attack homosexuals. Iran has had a long history of human rights violations. Mainly, people of religious minority communities that exclude Judaism and Christianity are outcast and denied educational rights. Well-known Ayatollahs, government officials, and appointed heads of state further spread messages of hate to human rights by proclaiming that gay marriage is a reflection of weakness among the Western states. We all know that the Iranian government has always chastised America since its inception.

Locals affairs such as gay marriage may still be a concern to homosexuals in Western countries like ours but people must remember a time when coming out of the closet itself seemed like an abnormality.It may take a long time before the gay marriage issue is settled however I believe that the most basic of human rights which allow a person to live without hurting others around them should be defended.

One such example of an innocent execution was that of a 24 and 25 year old youth in November 2005. Their story of human rights violations is not the only one. In fact, the hanging of gay people is available for public viewing to spread a hateful message of discouragement to anyone who is gay to live a legal lifestyle.

Unfortunately the law is so flexible in Iran that a ruling cleric or “a just judge” is allowed to interpret the definition of anything found offensive by an Iranian policeman. These two youth were accused of kidnapping, rape, and sodomy. When a government is belligerently unjust in administering justice for the safety of its citizens, how will it sustain itself without outrage from its own people?

The LGBT community in the Western states is waiting to see more results from the president’s decisions on whether or not to support gay marriage. Many people of the Iranian community in the United States with whom I speak to are awaiting for the president to improve his performance on making a clearer statement to Iran that human rights must be obeyed. While the LGBT awaits for more action on issues at the local level, perhaps the actions will send a clear message of concern to the president that he should take action in stopping the homosexual genocide in Iran. I hear young Iranians always getting complimented by people of other races. Perhaps we can increase the unity, diversity, and good relations amongst the people of our world by protecting one another from injustice.

 

Pictures From An Execution Come Into Focus

 

 And another thing:

When “the president” of Iran proclaimed “We don’t have gays” in front of an intellectual audience of Columbia University students who laughed at his remark, it made me think if he was in denial of either a.) being gay or b.) really having gays in his country.

A seemed like the more logical choice however, I was concerned once I noticed that homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, in an effort to eradicate itself from what it believes as ”impurities”. Did the president of Iran try to say that Iran doesn’t have gays….anymore? I wonder because 10% of the world’s population is gay, according to statistics, which includes people of every race, creed, gender, etc…

Advice From a Fellow Transfer Student

By Latanya Donaldson

As a transfer student you already mastered the art of partying all night while still being able to accomplish excellent last minute essays and cramming study hours into your busy social and school life. Once again, you feel like a freshman. The combination of excitement and nervousness is enough to make you second guess your decision, but still you are confident that you are transferring for all the right reasons. Now comes getting used to a new campus, rules, food, people, teachers, environment and so much more! Everyone will have a different approach as to tackle those things.

People transfer for many different reasons, but with all the same hopes that their new school of a choice will offer both a great academic opportunity and a social life like no other. As a transfer student achieving academic success can be a little easier than having the dream college social life. Clicks have already formed and apartment style living isn’t as friendly as living in a dorm. So exactly how do you make friends?

First of all be yourself (if it worked at your previous college, chances are it will work at SC). Second, get involved. I wouldn’t have the amazing friends I have if it wasn’t for my involvement in the LGBT community. I am not advising that you become a member of every club just to make friends. However, USC offers numerous clubs and volunteer opportunities and one of them is sure to take up your interest. Join a club that catches your eye. You will meet people who share similar interest as you which could lead to some of the best times of your life. Third, don’t be afraid to talk to people in your class (no one is listening to the professor anyway). People here are extremely friendly and are always open to meeting new people. You can never have too many friends it might take time, but sure enough you will be enjoying the truly amazing social life that University of Southern California offers!

My first year at USC as a LGBT transfer student wasn’t as lonely as I thought it would be. There are no specific LGBT groups that help transfer students adjust, but in all honesty you don’t need it. There is a special interest floor called the “Rainbow Floor” where the doors are always open if you need someone to talk to, play guitar hero with, or watch America’s Next Top Model.

Zachery Keyse, former Executive Director for the GLBTA and transfer student, and Wendy Barclay, a fierce LGBT supporter.

The Welcome Back BBQ is a great way to meet new people and see familiar faces that you will see throughout the year. In addition to the other popular events, the weekly U-Rap meeting is another great way to meet people, voice your opinion on LGBT related issues while, and learn new things. I could go on forever, but like I previously said everyone has a different approach when it comes to adjusting to new things so just do whatever you feel comfortable with. Explore, explore, explore! Chances are USC offers many LGBT clubs and events that your previous school and high school did being that we are rated among the top LGBT friendly campus.

Apart from being involved in the LGBT community, I also got involved with things that are major related. I joined the concert committee, music industry club, and attending various events on campus. A little off topic, but if LGBT issues and events don’t interest you then get involved in things you feel passionate about. Who says just because you are LGBT means you have to attend every protest and be super involved? You also don’t need LGBT friends to help you adjust or make transfer life easier and there are other ways to meet LGBT students. You just need people you feel comfortable and have a good time with.

Just remember as a transfer LGBT student here at the amazing University of Southern California you are never alone. You will have help from getting the grade, to making friends, and making great connection in the LGBT community that can last a lifetime. Of course it will take some effort on your end, don’t be afraid to step in and make you time here one that you will never forget!

A freshly minted sophomore of suspect qualifications offers unsolicited advice to incoming first-years

By Louis Lucero II

Armando Quiroz, former Resident Advisor for the Rainbow Floor, and Deshawn Helmick, former co-chair of FAB

As you’ve doubtlessly heard from any parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, legal guardian, piraguero (shaved ice vendor), locksmith or counselor who’s done the undergrad thing, “College is what you make it.” It’s as if every diploma issued comes with the solemn obligation to dispense these words at every turn, to every incoming freshman or any person who looks remotely college-bound. In a break from the convention of conventional wisdom, however, these words appear to be true. Most unusual, no? College ‘is what you make it’ insofar as you can decide your own level of involvement; choose to pursue as many or as few interests as you like; spread yourself thin (imagine a bagel with a fine coating of schmear) or centralize your energies (visualize, if you will, a heaping dollop of sour cream atop nachos).

Reaching back into the many memories from my own first-year experience—all the way back to the 2008-2009 academic year—I believe there’s something to be said for spreading yourself a little thin…at least at first. The transition to la vie universitaire isn’t one anyone should have to make alone, but there’s no reason anyone should have to. For those first few weeks (if not months, perhaps), everyone’s a new kid. Feel free to explore things you wouldn’t have previously. A lot of students who weren’t at all involved in their high school Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) find that LGBT life at USC is too good to pass up.

The University of Southern California is…a university – that’s some real talk. As with any university, there is always going to be an intramural team you can join, a student-run publication to which you can contribute or an improv group for which you can audition. However, USC’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Assembly (GLBTA) and its subsidiary student organizations truly constitute some of the most remarkable and, frankly, bad-ass attributes of the University.

FAB, the Freshman Advocacy Board, caters specifically to the needs of LGBT first-years. More often than not, those needs are straightforward: meeting people and finding stuff to do. Admittedly, FAB isn’t the most activist of the campus’ LGBT student orgs, but civil rights and equality will always need advocating and campaigning for: socializing is a pressing need too, especially for first-years. FAB is a great jumping-off point for anyone new to ‘SC—freshman and transfer alike. Show up to a meeting and see how you like it. Show up to a few more meetings and have your say in how the titanic sums of money USC reserves for all things gay gets shoveled around. It’s a “budget,” but in name alone.

Meetings of the umbrella-organization GLBTA are good for getting to know the heads of the GLBTA many “member orgs.” At GLBTA meetings, the Executive Board members of all the subsidiary groups report on what their particular organization has been up to and is planning for the future. Groups represented include the Ally Alliance; Genesis 9:13, an LGBT bible-study group; JAGS, the Jewish Alliance of Gays and Straights; the confidential discussion group uRap; EMRI, an organization campaigning for marriage equality; and more.

General advice: Pipe up if ever you have something interesting to say. Get as many G.E.s out of the way as you can early on, unless you were celestially predestined to be a psych major or whatever. If you see someone you know around campus with someone you don’t know, go say “hi!” Mutual friends are the easiest to make. Don’t overdo it with Campus Cruiser, just because you’re a Trojan doesn’t mean you’re no longer ambulatory. Explore Los Angeles!…and while you’re at it, Go Metro®. Be free with your meals and frugal with your Dining Dollars—the latter are as fleeting as the imagined buzz from self-fermented grape juice. If you want to, do it. If you might want to, do it. If you don’t want to, don’t do it.

At USC, LGBT students enjoy access to a wealth of resources: resources for making friends, making connections and making the grade. I’m happy to report that these benefits kick in ‘day one’ of your first year. So whenever you’re walking across our gorgeous University Park Campus thinking it’s a good day to be Trojan…remember it’s a better day to be a gay one.

 

Meet the GLBTA Executive Board!

Meet the  GLBTA executive board for the 2009-2010 school year!

LGBT: Youth in Television “Tweens, Teens and More!”

By Isaac Ahn

As a junior in high school, I avidly watched a series on The WB called Jack & Bobby.  It was a pivotal time in the development of my gay identity.  I was in the closet and really did not associate anything positive with being gay.  One episode of Jack & Bobby, “The Lost Boys,” really challenged my thoughts on my bourgeoning sexuality because it was the first time I had seen a gay character featured on a television show.  In the episode, a gay friend of the titular character Jack, commits suicide after discovering that neither his mother nor his friend supports him when he comes out to them.  I was hooked on the storyline and the character.  For the first time, I saw reflected on television the deep shame and confusion I had been feeling.  To this day, I still remember feeling the chills after watching the episode.  Despite the depressing ending, I was empowered by what I saw.  I knew my life would never get that bad.

Now, with five years under my belt, I understand how important visibility is and I know I’m not alone with this sentiment.  Last week, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences hosted a night titled “LGBT: Youth in Television ‘Tweens, Teens and More!’”  The evening, hosted by Kathy Griffin (see right), saw a slew of celebrity panelists speaking on how their respective shows approached their gay storylines and how they originated.  An opening speech from Mr. Robert Bradley Spears, the Executive Director of The Charles R. Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, started the night off by rolling out bleak statistics of what queer kids are subject to growing up to emphasize how necessary positive portrayals of the LGBT community are.  The discussion then jumped into producers, writers, and actors from Greek, Law & Order: SVU, Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, Prayers for Bobby, and Degrassi: The Next Generation speaking about their experiences with the gay characters and storylines on their shows.  My favorite panelist was easily Martin Ritchie, a gay model who appeared on the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, who offered the unique perspective of a being both deaf and gay.  A lot of the people on the stage spoke about how the networks were completely open to having gay characters.  I also heard a lot about how great most of the response has been to these shows and how great they are to aid discussion of issues such as Proposition 8.  It was quite empowering to see a stage full of queers and allies speak about how great everything was.  I was also entertained by the backstage stories that one normally wouldn’t hear about.

However, I didn’t see a single queer person of color on stage.  I didn’t hear a single mention of AIDS.  During an event sponsored by the so-called “Diversity Committee,”  how can these be overlooked?  I wish the discussion pushed the boundaries a bit more than it did.  All we got was an almost idyllic presentation of a Hollywood that has come so far and is open to more change.  Yes, great strides have been made since the 1950s, but is this all we can hope for?  None of the speakers, who are directly related in producing content for the American audience, gave any acknowledgement to our community’s goals and what to expect in the future.

Regardless of whatever criticisms I may have, I still had fun.  Kathy Griffin was quite entertaining.  I, along with the rest of the USC students who attended, enjoyed mingling with the celebrities (see left) after the discussion at a meet and greet hosted by Lifeworks Mentoring.  It was heartening to see that people do exist in the industry who are striving for more and better portrayals of queers, and are taking special care to give due diligence to LGBT youth along the way.

Meet In the Middle Rally

By Geoff Finch

Meet in the Middle was very similar to the only other protest rally that I’ve been to, which was in West Hollywood on the day of the ruling, but was certainly more grand in scale, like the Pelennor Fields of Prop 8 protests, which is a pretty fitting analogy, because one had the feeling of being summoned to battle in quiet Fresno, whose residents probably never expected to be taken over by gays from all over the state. It was a pretty rousing event.

It was hot and humid and the free water was warm, and each speech was very much like the last, in some cases just cut and pasted from the rally in WeHo, but it didn’t really matter. It was invigorating just to plug into the collective energy of the gay community of the entire state of California. For a couple hours we owned downtown Fresno. One felt powerful amongst so many like-minded devotees.

I was personally most impressed with the GSA youth, a group of high school kids who were almost unnervingly confident and magnetic for their age. We were a unified group of young and old, and we demonstrated that our fervor isn’t going to taper off with the expiration of our older leaders. As long as old bigots are raising young bigots, fresh young gays will emerge in opposition.

Even still, it wasn’t very satisfying to leave the rally at the end of the day with nothing changed to go back to our daily lives and wait for the next opportunity to defend our rights.

GLBTA Executive Director Genevieve Flores rallies for marriage equality at Meet in the Middle

Welcome to the USC LGBT Community Blog

Thank you for logging into the University of Southern California’s LGBT Community blog.  My name is Vincent Vigil and I am the Director of the LGBT Resource Center.  This is the community’s first attempt at blogging so please forgive us as we work out the problems.  However, I encoruage you to join us on this blog journey. 

Although the academic semester has come to and end.  I want to make you aware of some traditional welcome events that the GLBT Student Assembly and the LGBT Resource Center are working on for the upcoming fall semester.

They include:

• Welcome Back BBQ – Sunday, August 23 at 4 pm at Alumni Park
• LGBT 101 @ USC – Thursday, August 27 at 6:30 pm at Leavey Library Auditorium, followed by Rainbow Floor Meet & Greet
• MILK Screening – Monday, August 31 at 6 pm at Leavey Library Auditorium, rsvp: lgbt@usc.edu
• Welcome Back Dance and Mixer – Wedneday, September 3 at 9:30 pm at Ground Zero Coffeehouse, DJ LaRock from RAGE

For the summer, Genevieve Flores, the ’09-’10 Executive Director for GLBTA, and myself will be keeping you up to date on what we have been working on throughout this summer and we expect to hear your opinions and ideas to make certain our planning is up to your standards.

Also, when the school year begins, GLBTA leadership and LGBT Resource Center staff will be blogging about current hot topics in the community on and off campus.  Stay tuned!