Today is my 38th birthday, but that’s not so important. This is:
Our dear Worldly Friends, 27 years passed form the Islamic revolution in Iran. It is 27 years now that the execution of homosexuals in Iran has been legal. It is 27 years now that women in Iran have been considered secondary citizens. It is 27 years now that the basic rights of students, workers, ethnic and religious minorities in Iran have been denied from them. It is 27 years now that in Iran oppositions and thinkers has been oppressed. For 27 years now the storm of censor has been affecting thinkers and intellectuals and our writers and journalists have been arrested, jailed or lost their right to publish their thoughts and ideas. Because of their ideas millions of Iranians left Iran and emigrate from their homeland. The Islamic Republic has isolated Iran and insulted our people’s intelligence, pride and honor. They have driven our country toward international crises, sanctions and war. Despite all this it has been 27 years that the struggle for peace, freedom, human rights and equality continues. It has been 27 years that we have tried to form various social and political parties and different organizations in order to recognize the rights of minority and stand against execution of children and homosexuals.
(Emphasis added. More here.) The Iranian regime is odious, but it also IMO is what you should expect when fundamentalists come to power. Unable to cope with the reality that not all people people believe as they do, the attempt to eliminate them.
I support gay marriage (or, if you prefer, civil unions) and hope whoever reads this will join me in voting against whatever variation of the Karl Rovian “get-out-the-base” anti-gay-marriage amendment might be on the ballot in your neck of the woods this November.