Persecution Of LGBTQ Citizens Continues In Iran

(New York, N.Y.) – As the United States marks the start of Pride Month, the Islamic Republic of Iran continues to persecute and discriminate against its own LGBTQ citizens. Iran is among the minority of nations worldwide where sexual relations between consenting same-sex adults are illegal, and the regime continues its targeted campaign to isolate and persecute LGBTQ individuals. This includes tolerating so-called “honor killings” by family members.

A United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) resource, Iran’s War On LGBT Citizens, outlines how Iran oppresses LGBTQ Iranians. Tehran provides no legal protections for LGBT individuals, compels LGBT children to go through brutal “conversion therapy,” and pressures gay and lesbian Iranians to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. Consequently, gay, lesbian, and bisexual Iranians are forced to hide their sexual orientation and conceal same-sex romantic relationships to avoid arrest, imprisonment, flogging, and even execution. And a supposed regime “moderate,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, has defended his government’s killing of gay people.

UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace recently commended the Biden Administration for heightening attention towards Iran’s persecution of the LGBTQ community, saying, “Tehran’s abhorrent disregard for the human rights of its own LGBTQ citizens must be addressed, and we applaud the Biden Administration for elevating its focus on such Iranian persecution in the latest State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. UANI believes the Biden Administration should continue to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its grave human rights abuses and should uphold and expand existing U.S. sanctions imposed under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and other laws.”

To read the aforementioned UANI resource, Iran’s War On LGBT Citizens, please click here.

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