« Another gem... | Main | I came back from India with more than I thought... »
February 24, 2008
The Holocaust isn't over for everybody...
...at least not in Iran.
One of the things I've noticed as of late is that the world loves numbers. Not just any numbers, we love astronomical and unbelievable numbers. Maybe that's why history tends to forget that not only the Jewish were persecutted in the holocaust. Can you imagine, millions of people who shared your culture just being irradicated? The Jewish were the most visible in the crusade, and they deserve to be recognized for how they refused to forsake their beliefs even to the grave. The world needs to honor the poor Jewish men, women, and children who were sacrificed to an insane group's belief. An ideal that what they believed, did, and lived like was destroying a nation. Anybody in their right mind would look at that truth and think of how insane Hitler and his cronies must have been.
A few people happen to know that not only Jews were persecuted in the Holocaust. There were several other groups. Amongst them were homosexuals. Now, imagine a world where simply being accused (no evidence) of being homosexual could get you tortured and executed because some lunatics believe that it's the only way to perserve the purity of their nation... possibly the world. Only, we aren't just talking about the Holocaust anymore. We are talking about modern-day Iran. Just about every week another gay citizen is executed in Iran. We don't have numbers on how many total have been executed at this point... because nobody cares to stop it.
Further, our country grants asylum to those seeking it from persecution based on their religious beliefs, their race... so on... even just their political beliefs, but it denies asylum for those sentenced to execution because of their sexual orientation. We also don't have a definite number of how many people are denied asylum in the US every year upon pleas from those about to be executed. Why? Because, though we keep detailed records of denials of asylum for all the above listed reason, nobody cares to record how frequently we deny the condemned gay applicants. Nobody cares to even note how many of my people beg the US for mercy by simply allowing them in instead of deporting them back to the death squads each year. Nobody cares.
It's a little bit tough to swallow that because I CARE. I care because I know the truth. I know that I never selected to be gay or to live as such, I was simply strong enough to realize that I am who I am and embrace that. Of course, had I even muttered it as a possibility to the wrong ears in Iran, I wouldn't be writing this blog right now, I would have been erased. That's right, erased. As the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on America's own soil, right in New York (a state that knows a little something about this topic) that "In our country [Iran] we don't have homosexuals like in your country. This does not exist in our country."
Yet, he sorta forgets to mention that they just recently executed a few of these people who don't exist according the London Times article and echoed by one of Iran's own news sources. That is after they tortured them for over a year. Your right, once you successfully complete genocide, gays won't exist, until more are born... and then you'll have a whole new economy in murdering them as well.
Only, those poor teen boys weren't just executed... they were publicly hanged. Hanged to send a message. Two BOYS, not even old enough to drink... murdered as a public event.
It breaks my heart to know that my country is heartless enough to dare say that this is not worthy of asylum, or that it doesn't even care enough to keep track of how many pleas it gets. Send us your poor, your starving... just as long as they aren't queer.
It breaks my heart even more so that genocide still exists in a world that's seen millions slain by madmen. How can you slay hundreds more? Of course this is all in the name of god as all good bloodbaths always are.
I've been to India and I've had a taste of the way gay men are treated. I've seen a lot of disrespect in my own life because I was gay. I've been beaten up, passed over for jobs, thrown out of my own house... you name it, but at the end of the day, I always knew that I would be stronger because of it, and I wouldn't just stand and take it... but I knew this because the men in black suits with guns wouldn't come in the night and torture me then hang me in public as soon as they heard wind of me being gay.
THIS IS GENOCIDE, THIS IS AN OUTRAGE... Sadly I don't even know where I can start to help. I want to begin a program to endorse Iranian's attempting to escape the hellhole the earth calls Iran to come to the US. I want these poor kids being hanged to know that there is a way out, there are people who value their lives and their strength and WANT to help.
I want to save the world from itself, because if the greatest nation in the world, the United States of America, with all of it's power, and all of it's money (borrowed or not) won't stop the murders, and just ships these folks back to the chopping block, then somebody has to take responsibility. I can't turn a blind eye to this, I can't because I become almost physically ill when I read about it. It wouldn't matter if these folks weren't gay, if it were another scenario they were being executed for, I would still need to help them. And if you aren't willing to step up to things like this, then you should go ahead and start reading somebody else's blog, because I'm not interested in your presence or comments.
The poor teens mentioned above who were hanged were just one case, here's a letter from another individual seeking asylum from the US who was also turned down that was posted in a recent gaytimes news article. You won't find this on the MSNBC headlines, because we all know that Brittaney Spears is more important than the persecution of my people, but hey...
This is the news article I nabbed the letter below from
---------------------
My name is Sepehr [alias used]. I was born and raised in Iran, a country that kills people for falling in love. My government kills homosexuals by asserting we are an enemy of GOD. My president denies us even our existence as human beings when he claimed there are no homosexuals in Iran during his speech at Columbia University.
If he can say there are no homosexuals in Iran, it is because we cannot show ourselves. We stay hidden because if we are visible they will lash us; they will hang us; they will kill us.
They tell us that we are fighting with GOD by falling in love with the same sex. I want to understand that if this is the case, then why has GOD created us like this? I have had great difficulty in Iran and have never felt attracted to the opposite sex and my whole life I have been confronted insecurity about this.
I have always felt like an outsider and friends and acquaintances have often discussed my difference but I could never change how I feel. When I began high school, the abuse started. This left emotional scars.
Then I met someone from school who changed my life. The feeling that existed between us finally gave new meaning to my life. But this came at the cost of handcuffs and the hard punches of the Basiji.
My period of dejection began from there. I understood that my feelings are sinful. I was afraid of everyone and everything. I tried to straighten my life. I went to University and learned English and this kept my thoughts occupied for a while, in a new place and with new people who didn’t know me.
I eventually went to see a doctor and realized that this is my nature and not a virus of some sort. But still I was looking for answers to so many questions. I read books to understand how I should relate to myself and my feelings.
It was at this point that I realized that I have a right to a life of my own. I met a friend and together we tried to put the past behind us. In a new town and with a new life, I finally entered into a few good years.
But the effects of my sexual identity had me trapped again and this good period of my life came to an end. Again sadness; again loneliness. Am I sick? Do I have a disease? My family abandoned me, and just because I love people of the same sex as me.
Leaving Iran
I left Iran by bus to Pakistan because I was being threatened. If arrested, I risked being killed in a public execution with no trial.
From Pakistan I went to Zimbabwe and finally ended up in Malaysia in May 2007 where I applied for asylum and registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Almost a year later, I have completed my second interview and am now awaiting the results of this process.
For about eight months I have been suffering here in Malaysia. In order to get money to eat, I went to the hospital to sell one of my kidneys but they told me that it is illegal to sell body parts in Malaysia. However, I have few options as I am not allowed to work so acquiring those basic needs for survival are therefore difficult.
I am staying in a small town 45 kilometres from the capital city with no money to eat, and living accommodations that leave me vulnerable to millions of insects that suck my blood every night. I do not know what to do. I don’t even have money to buy soap to wash my clothes.
I sit here now in this dying body to write this letter to you. I am praying. I am crying. I am begging my GOD to help me. I am planning to commit suicide but if I do that I will lose so much, over 10 years of study, hard work and self-reflection to figure out who I am.
I had plans. I wanted to write books. I wanted to share my experiences. I wanted to help gay men to better understand who they are.
I wanted to speak with people to help them to understand that I deserve to live too. But this is my life now and as I am writing this letter my life is over. But what I can't understand is what I have done so wrong that I deserve to have my body burnt by cigarettes. I can’t understand what I did wrong that I must be beaten with a gun. But this is life.
I cannot make my plans with an empty stomach. I cannot continue this life. I need your help now. Please help to show me a more just life. I am still young. I want to be alive but I don't know how. Please contact me and show me the way.
HELP ME NOW, TOMORROW IS TOO LATE. I beg you.
I AM TIRED.
------------------------
Call your senators, write to the presidential candidates, YOU CAN do something about this.
So what am I going to do? I've thought seriously about going to the border of Iran to protest with a group from Ireland and I haven't made up my mind not to yet. I just got back from India and I still have the necessary shots LOL. I simply can't bring myself to turn a blind eye to this. It's wrong, I know it, I can't sit and enjoy a world where my boyfriend and I can walk down the street holding hands when my people are being murdered by the dozens for doing the exact same thing less than 24 hours away.
I can't sleep at night knowing that there is a holocaust going on right now today in Iran and I'm not doing anything about it, because if this ever happens in America... who's going to help me?
Posted by Decemberice at February 24, 2008 08:01 PM
Comments
Once I stop crying my eyes out I'm in.
I knew that some of these things were going on, but I didn't know just how severe it was until now.
I realize that not being homosexual, I'll never understand the full impact of what is being done, but I am human, and treating any human who just wants to live as if they are nothing, as if they don't deserve to exist is wrong.
We will let people in who just want to use up our resources, and our government money to pop out children who will grow up with little to no moral fiber because it costs too much energy to raise them, but we won't allow people who have a desire to better the world any aid?!
The short of it is, that's just wrong, no matter who you are.
Maybe I can't make a difference, but I can sure make a lot of noise!
Posted by: Ashley at February 25, 2008 10:00 PM
Whoa, I never knew they were going that far with all that shit. You're right, this can't go on. People are such arrogant cruel bastards, aren't they?
Posted by: Austin at February 29, 2008 10:43 PM