5centsapound:Laurence Rasti: “There are no homosexuals in Iran”“In Iran, we do not have homosexuals
5centsapound:Laurence Rasti: “There are no homosexuals in Iran”“In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country.”— Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking at Columbia University, September 24, 2007.While today some Occidental countries accept marriage for gays and lesbians, in Iran, homosexuality is still punishable by death. This sanction prohibits homosexuals to live their sexuality openly. Their only legal options are to leave the country, hide their sexuality, or choose transsexuality, a practice tolerated by law but considered as pathological.In Denizli, a small town in Turkey, hundreds of Iranian gay refugees have put their lives on pause waiting to join one day a host country where they can freely live their sexualities. In this context of uncertainty where anonymity is the best protection, this series of photographs questions the fragile nature of identity and gender concepts. It tries to give back to those people a face that their country has temporarily stolen.— Laurence Rasti*my only modest critique of this project is that only male portraits are represented here….**see also the excellent work of Zanele Muholi, working to represent the LGBT community in South Africa -- source link