July 20, 2006

Executing Gays in Iran

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If their nuclear ambitions and support for Hizbullah weren’t enough, here’s another reason to despise the regime in Teheran: they’re one of a handful of countries where homosexuality is punished by death. Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the public hanging of two gay teenagers in the city of Mashad. Human Rights Watch reports that police commonly tap phones and raid private homes to catch gay men and lesbians, and LGBT activist groups (based outside Iran, natch) estimate that as many as 4,000 such sexual malefactors have been executed since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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