5.9. Summary
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Summary
5.9
// Through our research we discovered that LGBT Iranians
find it difficult to trust even those closest to them and this
lack of trust plays into a perpetual cycle of low self-esteem and of feeling ostracised from society. There is also a deep desire
among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iranians, for each group to assert themselves as unique from one another, which leads to the segregation of LGBT Iranians from each other, as
well as from society. As mentioned in the previous chapter, there was a recent call by some to eliminate the ‘B’ from LGBT. In
addition, we were privy to an online argument on an activists wall about a Facebook group that was established solely for lesbians became very heated when gay men complained of
being discriminated against. However, despite the segregation of LGBT communities in Iran, the responses we received to our questionnaire illuminated some interesting commonalities. To some extent, all Iranians have to censor their true selves
in public. The intensely strict regulation of the public sphere in Iran leads people to act very differently depending on the
context they are in at any given time, and being LGBT gives our respondents an extra layer to hide. Being ‘found out’ can lead
to extreme consequences and it is completely understandable for Iran’s LGBTs to live intensely secretive lives, when verbal
testimony in court provides enough evidence to convict and punish someone for their sexuality.
// Thus, ‘coming out’ is far more complicated in repressed
societies like Iran’s than it is in societies where sexuality is
openly talked about both in public and in the media. When sexuality is such a taboo topic, it is extremely difficult to choose
who to come out to, and what to say when you do. In their stories about ‘coming out’, our respondents told us their families
and friends had often reacted unpredictably to the revelation, which further cemented their feeling of distrust and made
them less likely to tell others of their sexuality in the future.