I try to expose myself to ideas from different places by listening to the BBC World Service, reading blogs and literature from other places and talking to foreigners I meet about how they see the world. Yet I still frequently slip into tacitly assuming that everyone sees the world more or less the same way I do.
I was reminded of this today, while listening to a BBC documentary about gay refugees from Iran. In New Zealand, people who think that gay relationships are wrong tend to advocate two options for gay people: heterosexual marriage (generally after some kind of curative treatment) or celibacy.
Apparently, in Iran, there are two options, too - but they're different. Celibacy wasn't mentioned as an option (although maybe it is one) but the two main choices are heterosexual marriage (at least sometimes after some kind of curative treatment) or gender reassignment surgery. I was so surprised! I would never have thought that there were societies where people were against gay relationships yet in favour of gender reassignment surgery.
Just another reminder that the world really is a big place...
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