A New Iranian Friend I Have!

I have recently made a new friend. He is a young Iranian man that I got to know in USA. He & I have many common acquaintances. Moreover, we both went to the same college in Tehran, albeit we did not know each other then. Anyways, he and I have forged a friendship over our shared admiration for arts in the last 2-3 months he was in this town for some academic purposes. It may not seem much to you, but, since coming to US, I have had real difficulties finding a friend with whom I could talk about Deine Lakaien and The Seventh Seal and discuss posts/tweets of Marzieh Rasouli. Let's call him A.B.

Yesterday A.B. sent me a funnily worded email in Pingilish congratulating me and my "community" about the Supreme Court of the United States' historic decision regarding the Prop.8 in California and DOMA. 

He knows I am queer. He learned about it early in our friendship. And, as it happened, we were having a friendly, sparring chat in a coffee shop when LGBTQ issues came up. At some point, to prove a point he was making he said something to the effect of "If X happens, then your community will benefit from it."

By your community, he was meaning the community of queer people. In response to his choice of words, I looked at him  and sarcastically asked: "My community?!" He got confused for a second, but, as smart as he is, he got my point instantly and sheepishly grimaced. That incident turned into our inside joke. He would later send me links of LGBTQ news along with comments such as "Some good films for your community."  

Several times while he was in town, I teased him why he does not post anything about LGBTQ people on his facebook page. In fairness, he does post frequently news of Iran, Arts, and interesting stuff on his Facebook. "Do you suspect your Iranian friends [which he has many of them on Facebook  & real life] think you're gay?" He dodged my teasing questions as best as he could.

However, yesterday I heard via another Iranian friend that A.B. has posted something on Facebook to the effect of "Hey people, google Gay and see what happens."

So, that happened. And I am glad about it. The act of posting something about LGBTQ people , especially if it is a positive thing, is so rare among straight Iranians, as far as I have noticed, that when it happens we should all celebrate it. Really.