Shakhsari: The Iranian queer community became a hyper-visible political contender after 9/11 through internet blogs and transnational publications.

Taylor: Post colonial migration, capitalism, and political change allowed contemporary artists to critique hegemonic structures and create art that was individualistic.

I thought Shakhsari’s From Homoerotics of Exile to Homopolitics of Diaspora: Cyberspace, the War on Terror, and the Hypervisibile Iranian Queer should be applauded for giving insight into the queer community as an academic subject and its transnational political contender and social influence. However, the article didn’t prove there was a shift in the representation of the Iranian queer community, since they are still marginalized within Iran due to religious and social norms, and did not offer a significant source that the Iranian queer community became visible or “hypervisible” in an international arena or instilled in a international public knowledge. This could stem from the perceived notions of blogs as a non-academic form of publication that is largely drawing from personal opinion.

Parsi, head of the Iranian Queer Railroad, has seemingly become a figurehead for the group of Iranian queers, appearing to be the sole representative basing his organization in Canada for queer refugees. I wonder if there are more outlets for the queer community besides Parsi, and if there are issues or beliefs in the Iranian queer community that Shakhsari could not represent. For example, why did the Iranian queer become an issue of importance at American university commencement speeches and use 9/11 as a significant demarcation of visible change? Did the Iranian queer community feel misrepresented during the heightened political turmoil of the War on Terror, and wasn’t receiving any address by the government? How has their representation changed post 9/11, and why was this an important issue that needed to be addressed? Shakhsari notes that “the shift to the homopolitics of diaspora does not suggest that Iranian queers have only become political subjects after the war on terror, but that they have been recognized for their political usefulness in liberatory missions” (33). Are Iranian queers only applauded for their liberatory missions or actually have a larger political usefulness in social and political change? True, the Iranian cyberspace may be a new frontier for challenging heteronormativity, but I did not see how their importance and visibility began in the wake of 9/11.