Air France's gay stewards refuse to go to Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death

EDIT: Because people are super fucking sensitive, "They're" is referring to the governments of these country, ie. the people responsible for executions. I can't speak for the opinions of over 100 million individuals, and I love that people just assume I am.

I don't know why reddit has adopted this mindset that the Iranian people are the nicest and most tolerant people on the planet.

Look: governments can't get away with stuff like this completely out in the open if large swaths of the population didn't agree with it.

Just like 80 years ago the US could have laws which stated blacks and whites had to use separate water fountains. The US could have those laws because large percentages of Americans were cool with it. It doesn't mean all or even most Americans agreed with the laws but certainly a very large percentage did.

But today in 2016 there is no way the government could pass a law saying whites and blacks have to use different water fountains. Even if you could get the President, the Vice President, every single member of Congress and all the Supreme Court Justices to unanimously stand behind a law stating "blacks and whites must use separate water fountains" it wouldn't be enough. Police wouldn't enforce it, no one would pay attention to it and decent chance the government would be toppled. That's what happens when the populace is strongly against something.

Iran can have this law against gays because large swaths of their population support executing gays. Just like large parts of their population support women wearing the hijab.

The Iranian government, even a dictatorial theocracy, can't just do whatever they want. Don't believe me? What do you think would happen if the Iranian government passed a law that all Hijab's had to have a star of David on them? I'd bet you the government would be overthrown by 4/20.

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