Emma Goldman Quotes
I regard it as a tragedy that people of a differing sexual orientation find themselves proscribed in a world that has so little understanding for homosexuals and that displays such gross indifference for sexual gradations and variations and the great significance they have for living. It is completely foreign to me to wish to regard such people as less valuable, less moral, incapable of noble sentiments and behavior.
Goldman, Emma. Letter to Magnus Hirschfeld. Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. 23, 1923.
Islam forbids homosexuality and Sharia (Islamic religious law) prescribes death as the penalty for homosexuality. At that time Iran was a Muslim theocracy and if there were overt homosexuality that was officially discovered, the heretics would be killed. The logic of the government was that since they had killed the homosexuals, there were none left. At the same time all the research showed that while Muslim homosexuality was slightly less than Christian, it was still quite significant in all Muslim cultures that had been studied. If the President was to be believed, Iran was the only exception.
This statement gave the audience quite a laugh. There has been a small percentage of homosexuals in every society known to man—especially the ones who condemn it the most. In order for those opposing societies and cultures to speak about homosexuality, write about it and pass laws against it, there must have of course been some homosexuality. In the case of Iran and its Persian tradition and the Arab tradition there has been historically not only open homosexuality in different periods as in Ancient Greece, but it is documented by some of the great Persian and Arab literature. See {624479}.
Earlier, he had opposed same sex marriage, but as the population as a whole had a change of mind on this issue, so did he. By 2013, 16 States had modified their laws to allow gay marriage.
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
