Being gay in tehran max paradiso

“To put it plainly, I don’t like men my own age,” he answered, laughing. When I was 15, I made the mistake of confiding in my mother, telling her how much I loved watching a music video by the boy band In that moment, I learned that this part of me had to be hidden.

My father, once liberal in his views, became deeply religious, and by the time the Iran-Iraq war erupted, he had signed up to fight. Instead, it became a secret. The owner, a flamboyant character with a sharp wit, had been affectionately nicknamed Soosan by the community, as the name evoked the image of a middle-aged woman who smoked and knew all the neighbourhood gossip.

I grew up gay

Images of the Ayatollah adorned the walls, Qurans and prayer books filled every surface, and religion dictated every moment of our lives. I was eight years old when I first felt it — a longing for the boy next door, a desire to be near him, to touch his hand.

My parents had been living in the UK while they studied, but just six months after my birth, they returned home, driven by a newfound devotion to the Islamic Revolution. I went through the motions of dinners, hand-holding, conversations about the future, but there was always something missing.

Instead, our house became a shrine to the Islamic Republic. The feelings I had were undeniable, but I had no one to share them with. But inside, something was shifting. I tried dating girls, convincing myself that if I followed the path expected of me, the feelings would disappear.

It felt like a performance — and deep down, I feared the truth would catch up with me. June 24, But it was only when he moved to the UK that he found love and liberation, as he reveals here in Attitude's Rainbow World feature.

‘My biggest dream is that there will be Pride in the streets of Tehran’ Growing up in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty, Majid Parsa (pseudonym) struggled to accept his sexuality - until he discovered Tehran’s secret gay scene.

My childhood was shaped by the echoes of war: sirens blaring, nights spent hiding under our dining table, the fear of bombs falling on our home. LGBT Rights in Tehran, Iran: homosexuality, gay marriage, gay adoption, serving in the military, sexual orientation discrimination protection, changing legal gender, donating blood, age of consent, and more.

Source : attitude. Being gay is also considered a “psychological disease in Iran, and the military’s military board can exempt a gay man from service if they are deemed homosexual after an examination,” Jasmin Ramsey, the communications director for the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told Insider.

There, over cups of tea and shisha, we exchanged stories, made connections and could breathe freely. By my teenage years, those feelings became impossible to ignore. No neighborhood for old men So, if Tarasht is Tehran’s secret gay neighborhood, why does Musa need to use Badoo?

* Why Italy's Centre-Left is Breaking Apart * The Double Theft of the Double Klimt * The Last Woman Who Makes Sea Silk * The Secret Lives of the Mafia Hunters * Devoted Followers of Fashion * The Tory Insurgency (in Italian) * Corbyn, explained (in Italian) * Being Gay in Tehran * Mr Berlusconi's Bunga-Bunga parties (in Italian) * Diventare.

I prayed because my mother did, because that was expected.

Cruising A night out

I was born in Sheffield inbut my story truly begins in Iran. At first, I tried to suppress it. It was innocent, untainted by guilt, but as I grew older, that changed. I prayed harder, begging for it to go away.