Iran’s regime has executed 4,000 to 6,000 gays and lesbians since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, according to a 2008 British WikiLeaks cable.
An Iranian regime cleric in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday issued a homophobic rant against people vaccinated for COVID-19, claiming that they become gay after receiving the vaccine.
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian wrote on his Telegram social-media platform: “Don’t go near those who have had the COVID vaccine. They have become homosexuals.”
The radical Islamist has nearly 210,000 followers on his Telegram account.
An article on the website of Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast service stated that Tabrizian has a history of derogatory opinions about Western medicine.
Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due to repression, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the cleric’s goal is to create a scare of getting vaccination amongst the people.
“Actually, his goal of spreading nonsense is to try to scare people [out] of getting vaccinated, while the leader of the regime and other officials got Pfizer, and they don’t provide it for the people with the excuse that they don’t trust the West.”
According to Peter Tatchell, a LGBTQ+ and human-rights campaigner, “Ayatollah Tabrizian combines scientific ignorance with a crude appeal to homophobia.”
“By seeking to scare the public into not getting vaccinated against COVID-19, he is fueling the pandemic and putting lives at risk.
“Typical of many Iranian religious and political leaders, his bizarre, irrational claims scapegoat LGBTs and put theological prejudice before scientific knowledge.”
