Homophobia and transphobia are social disorders that cause people to act out against homosexuals and transsexuals. 

LGBT rights activists have done a variety of things to memorialize this day against this disease everywhere around the world.

In Iran, because of anti-homosexuality laws and oppressive conditions, there aren't many observable activities; however, LGBT activists have many actions for this day every year.

Last year, many of the LGBT rights activists distributed brochures and ads about this day in Tehran. The great We Are Everywhere campaignon Facebook was one of the human rights activist initiatives from the US, which received widespread support and involvement from many people.

This year, LGBT rights activists have launched the “Homophilia” campaign on Facebook.

Some homosexuals and transsexuals distributed educational brochures in Tehran, carried rainbow flags and banners, and flew colored balloons in order to create new social movements.
The pictures below were received from LGBT activists in Iran.

Download full album in a zip file here.

Persian Signs: No to Homophobia and Transphobia

Homophilia campaign gets the attention of many members of this social network just a few hours from its opening. The goal of this campaign that has been put on Facebook because of homophobia day is that, to join the LGBT to the society against all the struggling ways and do it in a peaceful way.

According to the information that has been said on the page of this campaign, it is supposed that people put pictures, voices and videos which contains peaceful messages and thanks to friends and companions and share their personal experiences about different kinds of sexual orientation. So we set an interview with the innovator of this campaign that you can read the elaborate information underneath.

Hello, please introduce yourself

Hello

I am one of the homosexuals who introduce and perform the idea of this campaign. I am a lesbian who is at the beginning of thirty and live in Iran. My friends and I have already tried to inform others in different circumstances that related to the LGBT previous years. Base on this idea we have done some works recently. But indeed when this idea came to my mind and so when I shared it with my friends, in my heart there was such an enthusiasm that I couldn’t doubt about it because this is a positive act that cause people have a closer relationship.

What’s your main goal and intention of making such a campaign?

We are at the threshold of anti-homophobia day that generally it is the day of fighting against any fears and act against LGBT community. In fact fighting against homophobia it is not the same as homophilia because when you open your heart for understanding and accepting others, in this case you will receive more than you expect. As a matter of fact our goal is that to share our personal experiences with others about those who don’t have the same sexual orientation.

So we invite all the people to say about their good experiences with others, with their written, voice, and video and anything that they are able to do. Indeed it is not just for LGBT people. We have lots of friends like heterosexual that if they  like to be present in this campaign they can say their experiences about the LGBT.in fact the people from different sexual orientation in LGBT community can talk about their first meeting and acquaintance. Indeed there is no limit. Actually our goal is to improve friendship according to differences.

We know that there were some who in our close society did this and could go beyond the differences and limitations and also be good friends for their LGBT friends.

As all of us know the international day against homophobia is a day of fighting against a social disease. So how did you reach to this positive idea instead of that negative one?

My reason for this idea is that to find people not also they weren’t sick but also their right behaviors could impress anyone, people who, however it is difficult for them that their loved one, friends and member of their families are different from others and they are more worried about that person rather than themselves, but with all these difficulties and cultural pressure and religion and different taboos, again they did their best to know them better and accept him/her with all these differences. Further, some of these homophiles have such an impressive social and personal role in others life that without them the way would be in danger, we can’t ignore this issue. Also there is ugliness all over but it is worthy to find the beauties.

As one of the custodians of this movement, what’s your evaluation of the future of the campaign?

It is less than one day that we put this page on Facebook. According to the time, it was a good welcome. I think this idea has the capacity to introduce in a broader way then Iran and finds its fans. Here the human talk about their loves and favors with all weak, fears and feelings that they have and this is the advantage of this campaign. Although, the facilities are not proper but, our intention is that not to limit ourselves to the Facebook and make a wider activities.

Thanks for your time that you shared with us. Further if you want to add more, you are welcome.

Thanks for your attention and kindness. I am hopeful for days which the human dignity become worthy of anything else and all of us live in a better world. 

According to reports from Human Rights Activist News Agency in Iran four men called “Saadat Arefi”, “Vahid Akbari”, “Javid Akbari” and “Houshmand Akbari” will be executed soon after their statement has been confirmed by high court judges recently.

According to their statement these four men will be hanging for having same-sex sexual intercourse (Lavat). 

According to reports from Gholamhosein Chamansara, the prosecuting attorney of Marvdasht city, “J.M.” was hanged in public on April 19^th.

“His last crime and the one which caused the death penalty was having sex with another man. He also had 11 more crimes.” Officials claimed.

His sentence was confirmed by Ayatolah Larijani, the president of the judiciary system,and also by the supreme court judges.

Being gay is not a crime in IRI’s criminal laws. But having a gay sexual relationship is punishable by death. Authorities deny killing gays in Iran, but the statistics do not confirm this claim.

Three other men were hanged 4 months ago for the same reason.

Iran has the highest rate of execution in the world.

An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to the news website Khabaronline.

"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," he said while interpreting Qur'anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. "Problems like Aids did not exist before."

Citing the Qur'an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. "Even animals ... dogs and pigs don't engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments."

Homosexuality is punishable by death according to fatwas issued by almost all Iranian clerics. Until recently, Lavat (sodomy for men) was punishable by death for all individuals involved in consensual sexual intercourse.

But under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status.

Despite the horrific punishment for homosexuals in Iran, the gay community in the country is alive underground and has won some recognition by coming out in defiance of the regime.

In September 2011, a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians launched a campaign on Facebook, highlighting the discrimination against sexual minorities in Iran where homosexuals are put to death.

Source: Guardian

Speaking to Gaydar Radio’s Scott Roberts, the former Mayor denounced the Iranian regime for outlawing homosexuality and repeatedly executing gay men and lesbians – but still denied he was a hypocrite for accepting payments from the Iranian state.

Asked to justify this, Labour’s candidate for London mayor said “I don’t go to Iran, because I don’t accept what the regime does, but if I’ve got a chance to talk directly to the Iranian people I’ll take it, just like I talk directly to the people reading Murdoch’s papers.”

Livingstone, who also once worked for The Sun, said he “didn’t agree with [Rupert] Murdoch”, referring to him as “a monster – not quite as much of a monster as the regime in Iran.”

Gaydar also questioned Livingstone about inviting the controversial Muslim preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi to City Hall in 2004 during his time as London mayor. The cleric is banned from entering the United States and has previously said that gay people should be executed and has also supported female genital mutilation. Livingstone was unapologetic, stating that Qawardi was the victim of “demonisation” by the western press.

When asked if he had used the opportunity to change al-Qaradawi’s views on homosexuality Livingstone replied: “No. I made no effort to change it, this is what he said, and if I’m asked to judge a person on what I hear them say, or what I read about them in The Sun, sorry but I’m going to believe what I hear.”

Livingstone support for al-Qaradawi had reportedly strained his friendship with the veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. When asked about this, he merely responded, “Yeah, but I met him and Peter didn’t, I had a conversation with the man.”

Source: Pink News

Since 2005, the internet has been increasingly seen as a threat to “security, cultural, social and moral norms in the country,” as expressed by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Reza Taghipour.

This year, Iran has intensified its surveillance and crackdowns even further, causing disconnections and deliberately slowing connection speeds (which were not very fast to begin with). A few weeks ago in February 2012, the governmenttemporarily blocked access to SSL-encrypted sites, making it harder to use censorship circumvention tools. Access to free webmail services such as Gmail and Yahoo! has also been blocked for periods of time since the presidential elections in June 2009, making it difficult for many Iranian users who depend on these services for their daily communication needs.

The latest move to further restrict the internet is the plan to launch a national “clean” internet, which includes, among other things, the requirement for all Iranians to register their websites with the Ministry of Art and Culture, and the establishment of a national search engine and webmail service provided by the government.

The recent increase in censorship and plans for a national internet are particularly worrying for sexual rights activists who are rely on the internet for their advocacy. According to a sexual rights activist in Iran (who wishes to remain anonymous), “After such a long time of working on LGBT rights, we are only seeing some positive impact in this field in recent years. In my own experience as a gay person in Iran, I am only seeing discussions on sexual rights in the past year. We really owe the internet for this.”

Due to the existing government restrictions placed on education and mass media, the internet is one of the few key channels for the public to access information about their rights.

“People are very uninformed about their rights,” says one activist, “if it wasn’t for the internet, people wouldn’t be aware that police don’t have the right to be violent; that politicians can have two jobs; that religions (Bahà‘ís, Jews, Christians, etc.) are free to practice as long as they don’t advertise; and that the hijab is not mandatory by law and that police cannot dictate what people wear.”

Many fear that censoring the internet will also prevent Iran from moving forward and that the notion of freer society will die with the free and open internet.

But the national internet does carry some benefits. Iranian authorities have said that the average user would be allotted 10 mbps of bandwidth, compared to the 128 kbps that most Iranians currently have. It would also give Iranians access to sites like Youtube, even if it is a government-approved, Iranian Youtube. The reality is that the national internet won’t likely pose a problem for citizens who use theinternet for routine things like checking their bank accounts, emailing and chatting.

But the picture is much different for sexual rights activists, who will no longer be able to connect to each other or to network with other advocates outside the country:

“It is the end for people like us,” says one activist. “Many organisations who work on sexual rights and provide counselling, hotlines and support are either banned or not recognized by the government. Now external sites from outside of Iran will also be banned, likely as of May 2012.”

Activist communities are now afraid to speak out for fear of being imprisoned, or even sentenced to death). For many, the end of the open internet in Iran comes with a sense of powerlessness: “there isn’t much people can do to react to this. Those who protested the elections are still in jail, and for people like me, who are dependant on the internet, are left with no other choice than to leave Iran.”

Source: APC

Washington, DC –Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, submitted his first report to the U.N. Human Rights Council this week, cataloguing “allegations that produce a striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed under international law.”

Expanding on a September 2011 interim report that highlighted various human rights issues, the full report is divided between legal issues and the situation of human rights.  Shaheed’s findings portrayed an growing human rights crisis inside of Iran, punctuated by “the alarming increase in executions since 2003.” Whereas in the interim report he noted over 200 executions had been announced, as of December 2011, 421 executions were officially announced while 249 additional secret executions were reported to Shaheed. A large majority of the executions were allegedly related to drug offenses, something Shaheed emphasizes does not meet the “serious crime” standard set by international law.

The report comes at a time of escalating tensions and concerns of possible Israeli or U.S. military confrontation with Iran.  Human rights and pro-democracy advocates inside Iran warned in a report last year that war would be devastating for their movement, cautioning that military conflict would provoke intensified crackdowns against the government’s domestic opponents. Iranian human rights defenders have strongly cautioned that even the rising threat of war has undermined civil society and emboldened hardliners inside of Iran. 

A new round of diplomacy is expected within the coming weeks between members of the UN Security Council and Iran, however it is expected to focus exclusively on the nuclear issue.  Diplomacy supporters have called for bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and Iran that are broadened beyond the nuclear file to address human rights and regional issues.

In addition to spotlighting the increase in executions, Shaheed’s report outlines violations of “students being deprived of their right to education on the basis of their political and student activities critical of Government or university policies.”  It also documents systematic discrimination against women, homosexuals, members of religious minorities, political activists, and lawyers—which has a force multiplier effect of denying legal representation for those whose rights have already been violated.

Another issue of focus in the report is freedom of the press in Iran. As of the report’s writing, 42 journalists were imprisoned in Iran, the highest of any country in the world. At least another 150 journalists have fled the country since the 2009 presidential election for fear of persecution. Moreover, Shaheed received information that 50 publications have been suspended since the election and most press trials are conducted in private, often barring the journalists from appearing at them at all, despite stipulations in the Iranian Constitution.

Iranian representatives denounced the report, saying it was “full of lies.”  However, the rapporteur has enjoyed broad support at the UN Human Rights Council and the one-year mandate for the office is expected to be extended for another year.

The UN human rights monitor post was first reestablished in March of this year.  The post had been in place since 1986, but the mandate for the position failed to be renewed in 2002.  The reestablishment of the human rights monitor was supported by a broad coalition of states at the Human Rights Council, and was strongly advocated by international human rights organizations including the Democracy Coalition Project and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran and groups including the National Iranian American Council.  Supporters of the post have argued that a broad, multilateral effort that enjoyed the imprimatur of the international community was critical in pressing Iran to resolve concerns about its human rights obligations.  

Shaheed, who was appointed June of 2011, has been denied access by Iranian officials to enter the country as part of his investigation of Iran’s human rights situation.  Although he was granted meetings with the Permanent Missions of Iran in New York and Geneva, Shaheed has not yet been granted the opportunity to engage with Iranian government representatives in any substantive discussion about the cases presented in the report. The findings in Shaheed’s report are based on information obtained from various “independent and reliable sources” such as human rights organizations, first-hand accounts from witnesses, and families of detainees in Iran.   

Shaheed formerly served as the foreign minister of the Maldives until 2007, when he resigned in protest over the government’s failure to implement democratic reforms.  He was appointed to the Iran monitor post in June 2011 and will report to the Human Rights Council on at least an annual basis so long as the post’s mandate is renewed.

Source: NIAC

They join 10 other nations on the campaign group's register of states that restrict net access, filter content and imprison bloggers.

India and Kazakhstan have also joined RWB's list of "countries under surveillance" because of concerns that they are becoming more repressive.

The body says 2011 was the "deadliest year" yet for so-called "netizens".

It says at least 199 arrests of internet campaigners were recorded over the year - a 31% increase on 2010.

It adds that China, followed by Vietnam and Iran currently hold the largest number of netizens in jail.

New entries

RWB said it had added Bahrain to its list after the death of Zakariya Rashid Hassan. It said the forum moderator had maintained a website focused on stories about his birthplace, al-Dair, ahead of his arrest on 9 April.

It said Mr Hassan was charged with disseminating false news and calling for the overthrow of his country's government before he died, six days after being detained.

RWB says the country's law authorities have also arrested other netizens, smeared free speech activists and disrupted communications at the time of demonstrations.

Bahrain's government expressed a number of concerns about the report, which it said failed to "present the reality of the situation" there.

Several positive steps had been taken towards reforming the media sector since the publication of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) into last year's crackdown on anti-government protests, it said, including relaxing censorship and increasing the range of political opinions in the media.

In Belarus, the campaign group says, President Alexander Lukashenko's government has increased the number of blocked websites and arrested some bloggers while inviting others to "preventative conversations" with the police during which they are pressured not to cover protests.

It says the regime has also used Twitter to send messages designed to intimidate demonstrators. It adds that the country's main internet service provider has diverted users to sites containing malware when they tried to log into the Vkontakte social network.

Elsewhere RWB accuses China and Syria of hiring bloggers to troll sites containing posts from cyber-dissidents, and then flood the pages with messages supporting the governments.

It raises concern that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced plans to create a "clean" web with its own search engine and messaging service, and says Vietnam has attacked Catholic networks and campaigners trying to raise awareness about environmentally damaging bauxite mines.

Watch list

RWB said India had joined its "surveillance" list after stepping up internet monitoring efforts following 2008's Mumbai bombings. It claims that the country's national security policy undermines the protection of users' personal data.

Kazakhstan was added to the list after being said to have cut communications around the city of Zhanaozen during a riot and having introduced new "repressive internet regulations".

Australia remains on the register because of its government's efforts to introduce a mandatory web filtering system to block content deemed inappropriate, such as child pornography. RWB says it is concerned that the system would not be managed in a transparent matter.

France is also on the list because of its "three strikes" policy on illegal downloads which can lead to net access being suspended.

The organisation also notes that a blogger became Egypt's first political prisoner of the post-Mubarak era after Maikel Nabil Sanad was convicted for criticising the armed forces.

Although the UK does not make either of RWB's list, the body notes that the UN has raised concerns about its Digital Rights Bill aimed at defending copyright.

It also says that Blackberry's decision to assist the authorities without a prior court order during the London riots is "a worrying development".

RWB also highlights the role of firms which provide monitoring equipment and software to repressive regimes.

It says that western companies have been criticised for activities in Syria, Egypt and Libya when Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime was still in charge.

The organisation notes that the European Parliament has adopted a resolution supporting tougher export controls, and that a bill with a similar aim is being considered by US lawmakers.

Source: BBC News

The name of HIV/AIDS  has  always been attached to homosexuals,  especially in the USA. resulting from lack of  knowledge about the disease and its carrying virus,   it used to be called homosexuals’cancer in the United States.  Finally in 1982, the name AIDS (Acquired Imunodeficiency Syndrome) was considered for the disease, and it became clear that having unsafe sex is only one the ways it can be transferred.

No official HIV-positive results have been reported among gays in Iran before 2011. But  two HIV-positive cases have been reported recently, which indicates that the number of carriers of the virus is than this number. Although Iranian LGBT, despite other parts of the globe, have been unaffected by the disease, this news indicates that HIV have been found its place among Iranian gays as well. There is no cure for AIDS, so the only way to fight it  is prevention.