Petrelis Files

NGLTF's Foreman on New Republic, Iran's Gay Executions

Hi Matt:

I've searched NGLTF's web site and also Googled for any statement from you and your group condemning Iran's executions of the two teenagers in July, and have found nothing.

Where is your condemnation of Iran's brutal mistreatment of gays and lesbians?

If you've already deplored the executions and Iran's abuses of gays and lesbians, please share your statement with me and I will post it to my blog.

Michael

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In a message dated 10/6/2005 12:48:49 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, mforeman@thetaskforce.org writes:

Michael,

I spoke to this reporter on August 9. At that time, the only things that were clear about the executions were that one of the men was a juvenile when he was executed and that the conditions of confinement and the treatment of the men had been inhumane. At no point did I say – nor does my quote say - that governments should not be criticized/condemned for imposing capital or other punishments solely on the basis of sexual orientation. I am angry that the reporter implies that I did and am sending a letter to the editor.

I stand by my quote that we should not have double standards when talking about capital punishment or conditions of confinement.

From the New Republic:
>Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), told me that when George W. Bush was a governor, "there wasn't a peep about the execution of juveniles in Texas. ... Let's not have double standards because it's a different part of the world." Foreman, who worked within the U.S. prison system for ten years, says that the United States still engages in "barbaric behavior" at home. "If we think that psychological torture and physical torture and rape and inhumane conditions are not part of our own criminal justice system, than people don't have a clue about the reality of our nation, let alone the conditions of Guantánamo, let alone the sanctions to keep prisoners in Afghanistan."<