LGBT rights in Iran since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 have come in conflict with the penal code, with international human rights groups claiming floggings and death sentences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment, or in some cases of sodomy, even execution of the accused is legal under the laws of this country’s theocratic Islamic government. Iran insists that it does not execute people for homosexuality, and those executed had either committed rape, murder, or drug trafficking.

In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking to Columbia University, said, “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in [the US]. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you that we have it.” A spokesperson later stated that his comments were misunderstood. In January 2012, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary-general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, described homosexuality as a “disease,” and said that same-sex marriage was “immoral”.

Any type of sexual activity outside a heterosexual marriage is forbidden. Transsexuality in Iran is legal if accompanied by a sex change operation; however, transsexuals still report societal intolerance as in most societies.

Although it has some of the strictest laws on sexuality and same-sex relations in the world, Iran also has a reputation for an extremely liberal sex-change operations industry.

According to the BBC, the Iranian regime recently made sexual reassignment even more accessible by announcing that health insurance companies must cover the full cost of sex-change operations, which can cost upward of $3,000.

According to the BBC, Iran performs more sex-change operations than any country in the world except for Thailand; the surgery industry has attracted patients from all over the Middle East and as far away as Eastern Europe. Official statistics for 2007 put the number of transsexuals in Iran between 15,000 and 20,000 people, with unofficial estimates suggesting many more — up to 150,000, the Guardian reports.

In a country where same-sex relationships are punishable by execution, sex-changing surgeries may mean the difference between life and death.

Iranian-born filmmaker, Tanaz Eshaghian, who brought attention to Iran’s transgender community in her award-winning 2008 documentary film,“Be Like Others,” illustrates the logic behind the law. In one scene of the film, a Muslim cleric explains how Islam supports sex-change surgery. “An action is allowed unless it states specifically in the Quran that an act is a sin. Why is adultery one of the seven deadly sins? Because it specifically says so in the Quran. Because it does not specifically state that sex change is a sin, therefore, we cannot call it a sin.”

Yet while the freedom to change sex might come as a relief to some, Eshaghian also draws attention to the pressure felt by gay men and women in Iran to have sexual reassignment surgeries as a means of legitimizing their sexual orientation. As gay individuals, they are committing a crime. As transsexuals, they can exist under Iranian law.

Ali Askar, a male-to-female who underwent surgery, told the BBC, “If I didn’t have to operate, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t touch God’s work.”

Gender theorist Afsaneh Najmabadi adds: “For legal and medical authorities, sex change surgeries are explicitly framed as the cure for a diseased abnormality, and on occasion they are proposed as a religioegally sanctioned option for heteronormalizing people with same-sex desires or practices.”

Teachers work harder than anyone else for nine months out of the year, we deserve our vacation.  There’s only one problem though: everyone has something for us to do. And it’s all just because they think we have planned nothing ourselves for the summer but to be lazy.  I’m here to tell you that we put off stuff for those nine months (vacations, sleep, house cleaning [at least I do for the most part], just getting some freaking rest, reading books we haven’t had time for, finishing a dissertation, and the list goes on…..).  No one seems to get that.  Just like last summer, I am being pulled in a dozen different directions.  Will people ever understand?  I doubt it, but thanks guys for reading my rant.

BOSTON—An appeals court ruled Thursday that the heart of a law that denies a host of federal benefits to gay married couples is unconstitutional.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, discriminates against married same-sex couples by denying them federal benefits.

The law was passed in 1996 at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004.

The appeals court agreed with a lower court judge who ruled in 2010 that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns.

The court didn’t rule on the law’s other provision, which said states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in other states.

During arguments before the court last month, a lawyer for gay married couples said the law amounts to “across-the-board disrespect.” The couples argued that the power to define and regulate marriage had been left to the states for more than 200 years before Congress passed DOMA.

An attorney defending the law argued that Congress had a rational basis for passing it in 1996, when opponents worried that states would be forced to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The group said Congress wanted to preserve a traditional and uniform definition of marriage and has the power to define terms used to federal statutes to distribute federal benefits.

Since DOMA was passed in 1996, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state and the District of Columbia have approved it, but Maryland and Washington’s laws aren’t yet in effect and may be subject to referendums.

Last year, President Barack Obama announced the U.S. Department of Justice would no longer defend the constitutionality of the law. After that, House Speaker John Boehner convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend it.

I was a bit yesterday, so I couldn’t really think of anything to blog about today.  Instead, I thought I would ask you guys a question.

Since school is out, I have a little more time to read, though I am also working on finishing my dissertation this summer, so it is not a lot of time to read.  So here is my question to you guys:

Do you have any suggestions for a good lighthearted read?  I’m not looking for anything too serious, so I would appreciate any suggestions.

School is almost out.  In fact, as they say in the South, it’s all over but the shouting’.  All that is left to do is the end of the year stuff and semester exams.

This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg’s father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most.

But at the center of this soaring memoir is Bragg’s mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people’s cotton so that her children wouldn’t have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives–and the country that shaped and nourished them–with artistry, honesty, and compassion, Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family. The result is unforgettable.

I would love to say that I was working so hard last night grading papers that I just didn’t have time to write a post today; however, I was actually hanging out with a friend of mine.  It was a she, we were drinking beer, and not naked like the picture above, but we still had a good time, even if we were at it longer than we should have been considering we still have to be at school to teach today.  It was a much needed break to a busy week, and it was fun had by all, so I am taking the day off from a “real” blog post. FYI: A slight addition to this post.

President Obama has confirmed that Vice President Biden’s comments forced him to move up his timetable on announcing support of gay marriage.

Obama told ABC’s Good Morning America that he had planned to discuss the issue just before the Democratic convention in early September, but things changed over the weekend when the vice president announced he was “very comfortable” with same-sex marriage.

Biden “probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit,” Obama told Robin Roberts shortly after making his own announcement on ABC.

While the president seemed somewhat irritated with his veep, Obama added: “All’s well that ends well.”

Obama also told Good Morning America that actual decisions to legalize gay marriage should remain with the states, which are “arriving at different conclusions at different times.”

“I think that’s a healthy process and a healthy debate,” Obama said.

Also: “This debate is taking place at a local level. And I think the whole country is evolving and changing. And, you know, one of the things that I’d like to see is that a conversation continue in a respectful way.”

Thanks Sean for bringing this to my attention.  I had not even checked the news today

I realized that my post today was missing the video from the movie Trick.  I will try and fix it later and embed the video.  In the meantime, check out this link to the video.


Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lebkS2ClmlM&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Sent from my iPad