Ahmadinejad was right about Iran. In his country, there are no homosexuals. It is as certain as the 5 a.m. hark of Allah on your neighborhood megaphone. They don’t exist. The flamboyant guys that the Canadian Broadcast Channel happened to film in underground cafes and parks, the ones Khomeini’s cronies either chased out of the country or sponsored for legalized sex-change operations — they aren’t really people. Nope, just currency in the exchange for ideals.

But, intangible as they may be, these non-humans have a certain magnetism to them. Not of character, but of composition. The gays of Iran are pulled together by opposing forces. Somewhere between their cause and their identity they have become one blurry, resonating thing. They are no longer a single person but — from Arsham to Mani to the next activist — a cause on parade.

Watch the Feb 2007 CBC feature on “Gays in Iran” below. It tells the story of an underground gay scene in Tehran that has been squelched, sold, surgically removed, executed and exiled numerous times, only to grow back as a rebellious organism twice as strong with each successive leader of the Persian Gays and Lesbians Organization (PGLO).