Americans are often bombarded with narratives that convey narratives about how other countries are hostile to queer communities. 

While in many regards this is true, we rarely examine how Euro-American imperialism influenced these sentiments in Iran or how the homophobia and racism we are so quick to point out abroad, is prevalent in our own communities here. Because of this, queer Iranian diaspora subjects often operate at a place that often separates them from both Iranian and queer communities, but also exempts them from acceptance into the heteronormative American landscape, leaving many at the margins of our seemingly clashing identities. 

In this first installment of our two-part Pride Month edition of our podcast, guest hosts Ariana Damavandi and Leith Ghuloum of "Del Beh Del: Heart-to-Heart Conversation with the Iranian Diaspora" seek to push back on these claims and share a piece of the gay Iranian experience. 

For this episode, they chat with two queer members of our diaspora community, Joseph Harounian, and James Koroni. 

Special thank you to The Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, Persis Karim, Ariana Damavandi, Shahriyar Najafgholizadeh, Evette Darensbourg for the production of this podcast, and Ariana Boostani for the music.