Be Like Others: Rather Than Accept Homosexuality, Iran Encourages Gender Reassig

[Shana A]

Be Like Others: Rather Than Accept Homosexuality, Iran Encourages Gender Reassignment Surgery

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

http://thewip.net/contributors/2008/05/be_like_others_rather_than_acc.html

Last year Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an audience at Columbia University, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country." His characteristically outrageous comment was met with laughter and boos; discrimination is no laughing matter in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.

But after seeing the documentary film Be Like Others Ahmadinejad's statement may be technically true. The 76 minute documentary by Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian, whose previous film Love Iranian-American Style documented her Iranian family's involvement in her love life, profiles Iran's leading gender reassignment doctor Dr. Bahram Mehrjalali (also spelled as Dr. Bahram Mir Jalai) and his patients.

[Ell]

that is so bizarre...

[RebeccaFog]

I think we should turn childish adults into children by chopping off their legs at the knees.

[Lisbeth]

This is the traditional Islamic response to homosexuality.  Same-sex relationships are not acceptable, so declare one of the partners the opposite sex.

[Suzy]

How can that country be so backward in so many areas and overly aggressive in this area?   


I think I might want to see that doctor's credentials before I would out myself there.  What incentive does he have for doing a good job?  Certainly looks like he has the market cornered.  I think I would get out of Dodge as fast as I could run.


Kristi

[Alyssa M.]

Gotta love the conflation of sexuality and gender. God help you if you're an Iranian transsexual lesbian or gay man. Oh, that's right -- they don't exist, because Ahmadinejad said they didn't. And of course, as we all know, there's no such thing as a bisexual person. Certainly not in the Islamic paradise that is Iran.

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