Gays Should Be Tortured and Executed, Says Iranian Official
By Pamela Mortimer

Iranian leader Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest ranking politician to admit to the existence of a national policy which prohibits homosexual relationships. According to The Times, Yahyavi’s admission came during a private meeting at a peace conference. The conversation arose when Yahyavi was asked to comment on reports of the hanging of two gay youths.

Minutes taken by an official recorded the events of a May meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union. When the Britons raised the issue of the Asqari and Marhouni hangings, Mr Yahyavi, leader of the Iranian delegation and a member of his parliament’s energy committee, did not flinch. Yahyavi "explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted," the report states. "He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce."

Nicole Pichet, a researcher who also recorded events at the gathering, told The Times that the discussion began with British MPs discussing the hangings of the underage gay teens. Mr. Yahyavi responded by saying homosexuality was to blame for a lot of diseases including AIDS.

In a statement made yesterday, Ann Clwyd, the Labor MP and head of Britain’s delegation, said, "It is of great concern that these attitudes persist and we made it clear what we felt."

Two months ago, when President Ahmadinejad was questioned regarding the executions by students in New York, he dodged the issue and suggested that there are no gays in his country.

Britain regularly confronts Iranian officials about its gay hangings, stonings and executions of adulterers and other perceived moral criminals, according to papers belonging to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Citing the Freedom of Information Act, the FCO released papers to The Times about the death penalty being used in Iran for homosexuality, adultery and sex outside marriage.

A series of reports detail the executions of gays, including two underage boys whose public hanging was posted on the Internet. The executions have alarmed human rights campaigners.

Gay rights groups in Britain, such as Outrage!, accuse Iran of covering up the executions with bogus charges related to more serious crimes.

The latest execution involved a girl who was hanged in June in the town of Gorgan after becoming pregnant to her brother. The brother was absolved after expressing remorse for his actions. Brits said that this was a demonstration the unequal treatment of men and women in law and also breached Iran’s pledge to reserve the death penalty for the most serious crimes.

Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Nigeria are among the countries that impose the death penalty for homosexuality, according to the International Lesbian and Gay Association.
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 11/13/2007

I guess that's why there are no "gays in Iran". Talk about DADT.

It's true that this one way in which we are lucky to live in this country rather than one of the ones mentioned in the article. The LGBT population of those countries lack all basic human rights, including the right to live.

It profoundly saddens me.

They have the right to "live", just not to be all "gay" in public.

"He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]."

I mean seriously, how is anyone really gonna know you are "gay" unless you are at a gay bar, at the Gay Pride Parade, or standing wide in in the bathroom? I mean it's not like pedosexuals run down the street in a clown suit with bags of candy for kids and zoosexuals don't have a Zoo Pride Parade. In fact the government forces any sexual offender to have to register and puts their picture on the internet to ostracise them and keep the FROM just blending in with everybody else. Until a gay guy puts on his pink wings and tights and a gay woman gets a butch cut and male cut jeans to make it obvious their "sexual orientation", no one knows.

Wow, Bush praises a country that happens to be against homosexuality, and that thread goes for 6 pages. Iran striaght says homosexuals should be killed, and nothing. Very telling.

Quite.

You gotta love some nations, stoning women and hanging gays, good ol' Sharia Law!

I thank God everyday that I don't live in a fundamentalist theocracy.

Which "God" is that? LOL.

the big news today is that the victim - yes, the VICTIM - of a GANG rape by six men - is being given 200 lashes and six months in prison.

yes - the VICTIM

Iran isn't a nice place to be any sort of minority, as I understand things.

As a Baha'i living in Twin Falls, Idaho, I got to know many Iranian Baha'is who had fled persecution in their own country... via the refugee center there in Twin Falls.

The had experienced job losses, threats, being banned from education... and knew people who had been imprisoned or even killed for being Baha'is.

It's sad, because all the Persians I've met have been such beautiful, distinguished people.. and from what I was able to learn of their culture, they have an amazing heritage.

To see Iran under the control of such ignorant despots is truely sad.