Opinion. "Trump may have done more for gay rights in Iran than all Western activists combined"?

In the latest issue of the American magazine *The Spectator* came out A column by British columnist Douglas Murray posing a provocative question: Why is the Western gay press silent about the downfall of the Iranian regime, which publicly hanged people for homosexuality? Murray took a look at Western LGBT media outlets such as Pink News, Attitude, and Advocate—and found stories about transgender restrooms and Tom Daley’s training instead of celebrations marking the end of a regime that executed gay people. The author’s conclusion is provocative: Trump may have done more for gay rights in Iran than all Western activists combined — though, of course, they won’t thank him for it. It should be noted that this article is entirely typical of Murray’s style—he regularly writes about the double standards of Western progressivism. The views expressed in it are by no means shared by everyone, and it is clearly intended to provoke discussion.

The Spectator — one of the oldest weekly publications in the world, founded in the United Kingdom in 1828. It is a conservative magazine that publishes articles on politics, culture, society, and international affairs. It has a separate U.S. editorial office (spectator.com) and an Australian edition. The publication holds center-right and classical liberal views, known for its hard-hitting, polemical journalism and for featuring prominent columnists.

I can't help but comment on this article. And not because Murray is wrong about the facts—unfortunately, he's right. But because he's right for completely the wrong reasons and with completely the wrong intentions.

Yes, the Western gay press is cowardly silent on Iran. Yes, Pink News is preoccupied with transgender restrooms while people in Tehran were being hanged for doing what you and I do in the bedroom. This is a real problem, and I’ve been talking about it for five years now—long before Murray decided to use our corpses as a political weapon.

But here’s the thing: Douglas Murray is no friend of gay people. He collects our pain as ammunition in a completely different game of his own. To him, gay Iranians aren’t people who need solidarity. They’re a convenient club he can use to beat up the left. Today he mourns the executions in Tehran, and tomorrow he’s back to writing that “the agenda has gone too far.”

This is called “pink camouflage”—homonationalism in its purest form. The use of the queer community to justify military operations and imperialist policies. Trump killed Khamenei—and now this is being presented as an act of liberation for gay people? The man who, in his very first week as president, expelled transgender soldiers from the military, banned any mention of LGBT people in federal documents, and applauded Orbán—is this man now a hero to Iranian gay people?

Murray presents us with a choice: either you remain silent about the repression in Iran (cowards and hypocrites), or you applaud the American bombings (progressives who have finally seen the light). There is no third option. This is a classic trap, and I refuse to fall into it.

Gay people in Iran deserve freedom. And they’ll get it—not thanks to Trump’s missiles, but in spite of all the Murrays of the world who use their suffering as fodder for a column in *The Spectator*.

The silence of the Western gay press is a disgrace. But Murray’s article is a different kind of disgrace—a more subtle one.

— Sergey, Editor-in-Chief of Doberman.media