Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights Division at Human Rights Watch is tonight’s special guest at the screening of Be Like Others, an intimate documentary that reveals the restrictions and painful choices forced upon individuals confined to the fringes of Iranian society.
Directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, Be Like Others, follows the journeys of several young men (and one woman) at a sex-reassignment clinic in Tehran. These patients’ lives are fraught with physical and emotional turmoil. Many are shunned by their families; others have life-long physical pain from post-operation complications. Hope prevails in the idea that the operation will lead to a more public life without persecution.

Scott Long has documented and advocated against human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV status for many years. His work led to the United Nations human rights mechanisms agreeing publicly for the first time to take up gay and lesbian concerns. As program director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) for almost six years, he edited or co-authored reports on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender parenting, and on the use of sexuality to target women’s and feminist organizing. He is the researcher and author of Public Scandals: Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania, a report by Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC, and of More than a Name: State-Sponsored Homophobia and Its Consequences in Southern Africa, also for Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC. He also researched and authored In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct, Human Rights Watch’s detailed report on sexuality and Egyptian criminal justice.

Scott Long holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has taught at the University of Budapest, as well as holding a Fulbright lectureship at the University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. He was a founding member of the Romanian gay and lesbian organization ACCEPT. His work spearheaded a European campaign and contributed strongly to Romania’s eventual repeal of Article 200 in 2001. While in the latter capacity shortly after the Romanian revolution, he began his career as a human rights activist, documenting and defending people imprisoned under Romania’s repressive sodomy law. He joined Human Rights Watch as a consultant in 2002 to develop a project on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, and in March 2004 was hired as its director.

Be Like Others screens at 9 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to order tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque and will be available at the theatre when doors open at eight.

Gay Iranians live under religious edicts that give them false options: either choose to live as a homosexual and risk being caught in an offense punishable by death, or be diagnosed as a transsexual, allowing you a government-sanctioned sex change.

Director Tanaz Eshaghian follows the intimate journeys of several young men (and one woman) at a sex-reassignment clinic in Tehran that provides them with the hope that an operation will lead to a more public life without persecution. These patients’ lives are fraught with physical and emotional turmoil. Many are shunned by their families; others have life-long physical pain from post-operation complications.

Educating and counseling them (and the viewer) through the process is Vida, a post-op woman who says the one thing that has allowed her to survive the process was the support of her family. Not only do we witness the pain of these patients, but we see the strain on family members, whose love for their children is challenged by societal pressures and fear for their futures.

Program Notes by Alex Rogalski