This was a programme I watched last night on BBC2. In Iran, homosexuality is punishable by prison and stoning, but sex changes are legal. They perform loads of operations there. The documentary followed some men who were considering having the surgery. It was so sad. Lots of them just seemed to be gay men, who could see no other way to be with men than to become women. It was heart-breaking - often they are cut off by their family, go into prostitution on the streets etc. Women do it too (oppositely, obviously), but it didn't follow any. It was such a well-made, tragic documentary, and exposed all the hypocrisy and fallacies in the Iranian legal system. :tears: This needs to change.
I know what it's like to not be free to be yourself. Gender and sexuality are two very different conversations; it's tragic to tell a gay man he must be a woman to express himself, just as it's tragic to tell an MTF Transsexual that she should "just get over it and admit you're a gay man". I weep for them.
It is available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0092wrz.shtml for another six days. However it may not be available if you have a non-UK IP address.
Wow. I watched the first few minutes of the doctor explaining to the woman that if she tells the psychiatrist her feelings toward women, she will be branded a lunatic and be able to get her operation. And her gratitude, "I owe you my life, I'll give you everything I have". Even just that made me well up.
