>>>>>Interesting. I wonder if Ahmadinejad really thinks anyone believes him.
>>>>
>>>>Just trying to imagine G2WB showing up on Chinese TV and being asked "are there any Communists in the US, and do they get equal treatment?".
>>>
>>>He would proudly step up and tell them that everyone gets equal treatment in the U.S. - even communists. And he'd believe it too.
>>
>>I'd feel a lot more comfortable being a Communist in the US ( in 1952 if you like ) than being gay in Iran.
>
>Me too, but that doesn't mean that everybody in the U.S. gets equal treatment. It only means that those who are not treated especially well are treated better than those treated badly in Iran.
>
>It's a matter of degree only.

I think there is more than a degree of difference between the postion of a Communist in the US ( where people just laugh at you ) and being murdered by the state in Iran for being homosexual.

There is no human right to have other people approve of you or like you. But when the state is involved in anathematizing a group ( and here the US is most flagrantly at fault for its treatment of gays and people like polygamists ) it has crossed the line. Reagan actually had it right when he said it is the role of government to protect us from each other, but when it tries to protect us from ourselves it has gone too far.

But Iran - or Cuba or Saudi Arabia or ... - doesn't even see this as a problem (any more than some of our more righteous citizens would if given the chance)