The US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran noted in its Tuesday published fact sheet that “Iranian government officials engage in hate speech against the LGBTQ community, which encourages state and societal violence against individuals. For example, Ebrahim Raisi, who is now Iran’s president, said in 2014 (when he headed Iran’s judiciary) that homosexuality is nothing but savagery.” Peter Tatchell, the prominent British LGBTQ activist and human rights campaigner told The Jerusalem Post that “Raisi’s ignorant bigoted views are commonplace among the Iranian religious and political elite. They sanction the death penalty for consenting same-sex relations. That is the real savagery, along with the torture of political prisoners. Raisi is allegedly implicated in the barbaric execution of thousands of dissidents in the 1980s.” He added “ending the death penalty and the criminalization of homosexuality should be made additional pre-conditions for the lifting of sanctions on Iran. According to the Center’s research, “Iran is one of only six countries that impose the death penalty for same-sex relations” and “The death penalty can and has been applied to juvenile LGBTQ individuals.”