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Survey: What is your Stance on Homosexuality and LGBT Rights?

May 24, 2015
IranWire
2 min read
Survey: What is your Stance on Homosexuality and LGBT Rights?

1. Homosexuals should be able to enjoy all citizenship rights, just like everybody else.

58.8%

2. Homosexuality is a sin and homosexuals must be treated according to religious laws and the laws of the country.

1.5%

3. Homosexuality is a disease and it must be cured.

6.2%

4. Homosexuality is neither a sin nor a crime; it is a sexual orientation and a private matter.

31.4%

5. None of the above.

2.1%

This week IranWire asked its readers to comment on International Day Against Homophobia and LGBT rights, which took place on May 17. The results reveal a vast gap between perception and reality, a divide between widespread assumptions of Iranian values and the truth of public opinion. “If only all of Iranian society would think realistically, like this survey suggests,” one Persian IranWire reader commented.

Of the readers who took the survey, 58.8 percent agreed with the first opinion, “homosexuals should be able to enjoy all citizenship rights, just like everybody else.” The fourth option, “homosexuality is neither a sin nor a crime; it is a sexual orientation and a private matter,” was select by 31.4 percent of those polled.

Taken together, 90.2 percent of respondents believe that homosexuality is neither a crime nor a sin, and that homosexuals should enjoy the same rights as other people.

The Islamic Republic of Iran considers homosexuality to be both a crime and a sin. Every year there are numerous reports about the violation of their civil rights.

Last year, in a meeting with the members of the Assembly of Experts, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared that West was witnessing a “deepening moral crisis” and pointed to “sins such as homosexuality” as a sign that Western values were corrupt.

The IranWire survey offered two answers that showed close allegiance with Iran’s official narrative on homosexuality. One point five percent of those polled agreed with the statement “Homosexuality is a sin,” and 6.2 percent agreed with the statement “homosexuality is a disease and it must be cured.”

Of course, the IranWire survey is not comprehensive enough to accurately represent the whole of Iranian society. But it certainly suggests Iran’s official line on homosexuality is not necessarily shared by all in the country — and that the regime’s homophobic propaganda is not having the impact it once did.

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