Being gay is forbidden in Iran while transexualism is considered a fundamental human right

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/01/06/83942/-Ayatollah-Khomeini-Sex-Change-a-Fundamental-Human-Right

Thu Jan 06, 2005 at 03:48 PM PST.

Ayatollah Khomeini: Sex Change a Fundamental Human Right

I'm one of the few people in Britain who considers the BBC license fee (£120 or $200 per year) a real bargain. The investigation of the "Dogdy Dossier" which disclosed the Government's lies about the Iraq threat was enough to convince me. Tonight they wowed me with a human interest story on transexuals in Iran - that's right, Iran.

Apparently 41 years ago Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) to the effect that transexualism was an illness which was not in itself against Islam and could be redressed by science. Since then Iran has developed the most forward-thinking and sensitive treatment of transexuals, even permitting them to change their birth certificates to their new genders.

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Just seems odd to me that while being enlightened on one subject they can be so closed minded on another.

[kestrel91316]

1. That is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard.

(completely baffled, shaking head)

[shcrane71]

2. I've heard Christians who believe the same thing.

Imagine being a kid who feels comfortable in his or her body, but is coerced or forced to go through operations which will change his or her sex.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. If I got a sex change, I could marry a man right here

in good old Mississippi, or any other state for that matter. I don't understand why I can't marry a man as I am now, but then again, I don't understand the tortured logic that some religious people put themselves through.

[Nikia]

4. Some cultures that accept transgender people still have a very strict gender binary

A man can become a woman or vice versa, but doing feminine things as a man or masculine things as a woman is a serious transgression. In these cultures, having sex with someone of the same gender is usually considered very unmasculine or unfeminine.
I would think that in some of these cultures, there would be some people who would have sex changes there that would not in modern America or in other cultures allowing more freedom in gender and sexuality.
In these cultures, preserving the gender binary is very important. The fact that some individuals can switch genders as long as they play by all the rules of the gender system doesn't lessen the strength of the gender system.