A chilly rainy evening in north Tehran. I'm sitting in a cozy cafe-restaurant where some gay Iranians hang out every Tuesday, clandestinely. Despite all difficulties they face in the Islamic Republic, some them signal their gayness discreetly by wearing a thumb ring or a rainbow wristband.
Gay Iranians can be lashed, hanged or stoned to death if caught. The law includes a variety of penalties for different acts: 99 lashes if two unrelated males sleep "unnecessarily" under the same blanket – even without any sexual contact. An immature boy raped by an adult man would also be lashed 74 times according to the same law, if the court decided that he had "enjoyed" the experience.
Meanwhile, a gay community survives in the Iranian capital. "Being gay is not a weird thing any more among the new generation in Tehran," Reza, a 23-year-old student. "You can rarely find a young Tehrani who doesn't have a gay friend or at least doesn't know someone who is gay" – though he concedes that the picture in many Iranian provinces is very different.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/16/iran-gay-rights
