For 40 years Iran has performed more gender transition surgeries than many other nations, largely a result of pressuring gay and gender-nonconforming citizens to undergo unwanted operations or risk the death penalty. Now, faced with an economy crippled by war and sanctions, the Islamic republic is promoting its expertise to a global audience, hoping to attract transgender foreigners with the promise of inexpensive surgeries packaged with luxury hotel stays and sightseeing tours. Desperate for foreign investment, Iran’s theocratic government has set a goal of generating more than $7 billion from medical tourism annually, according to Iranian state news media, about seven times as much as it earned last year. That objective has resulted in the proliferation of medical tourism companies, marketing not just nose jobs and hair transplants, but vaginoplasties, mastectomies and penis constructions through glossy English-language websites.
So in a country where gender affirming care is nigh-impossible, and repression of trans people is third-reich levels, an article goes out condemning Iran for allowing high-quality gender transition surgeries more than many other nations 
.
The reporting
In Iran, gay men and lesbians can be punished by public flogging and the death penalty. As a result, the United Nations Human Rights Council found, many gay and lesbian Iranians who are not trans are “pressured into undergoing gender reassignment surgery without their free consent.”
The Committee is also concerned about reports of gay and lesbian Iranians being pressured into undergoing gender reassignment surgery without their free consent
There is no further inclusion of these reports (or I’m reading the UN document wrong). Please help me understand if this is bullshit or there’s some factuality behind this claim. This kind of reporting also does an amazing job at sparking strife between trans / gay and lesbian individuals I feel.
Without doxing myself too much I’m a gay persian dude and no I have literally never heard this ever from anyone in Iran. This is the first I’m hearing of it from an American propaganda source
Jokes aside, f you don’t mind, do you have any first/second hand accounts of what it’s actually like to be gay in Iran?
I moved to the US as a kid then moved out of the US with my partner many years later but I’ve been back to Iran a few times on holiday with my family to visit. But yeah, it is an underground culture that is present in places if you’re in the know. I imagine it is a lot like it was in the US in the 70s which was before my time. A lot of it is organized with mobile phones and encrypted apps now. It is illegal but it is also illegal to witness homosexual acts so, yeah there is a don’t ask don’t tell feel about it. Because I have a choice I don’t want to live there, I much prefer Mexico lol
If I recall, this has been a big thing in the anti-Muslim/anti-Trans propaganda sphere for decades, saying how it’s super evil that they not only hate gays, but then force you to be trans. It’s very brainwormed fascist nonsense.