Persecution of Gays in Iran...

I doubt this report will make it to the gay press here in Canada.

The Iranian government is executing gay and bisexual men under the cover of rape and kidnapping charges, according to a major new investigation by Simon Forbes of the UK-based gay and lesbian human rights group OutRage!

Mr Forbes's nine-month investigation, published today by OutRage!, is based on information gathered from sources inside Iran. His research reveals:

* Lynchings by Iran's security forces, and ‘honour killings' by families in the south western province of Khuzestan

* Secret hangings in prison

* The method of hanging is designed to cause slow, agonising strangulation

* Internet entrapment of gay Iranians using foreign-based online gay dating agencies

* A pattern of framing gay people on charges of kidnap, rape and paedophilia, as the following five sample cases suggest:

* The Gorgan case where two men were publicly hanged for Lavaat (sodomy) in November 2005

* Details of the Kermanshah case where three men were hanged in prison in November 2005 for sodomy that was alleged to have taken the form of the kidnap and rape of a younger male

* The Arak case of two men sentenced to death for sodomy in August 2005, which also involved the alleged kidnap and rape of a younger male, the son of an officer

* Two cases of public execution for sodomy in Mashhad in December 2004 and July 2005 that involved suspiciously similar charges

* Claims of rape are sometimes made to save the family's honour or to save the passive partner from execution, and are part of an Iranian government propaganda offensive to scapegoat and demonise gay people

* Comparisons with Saudi Arabia, where it is also suggested that bogus rape charges are levelled against gay men

* Hypocrisy of the mullah's attitudes towards the abuse of young girls, the rape of both males and females in custody, and widespread sodomy in religious colleges