"there are still degrees of severity within the category"
Not witin the definition there aren't (you pair raised it) - persecution is persecution.~~~
.,,.

Oh come on, Jim; all categories have their degrees:-

Punishment is punishment. But staying in for half an hour to write out 'I must be good' 50 times is not the same as 500 lashes of the cat or 20 years banged up in Parkhurst, is it?

So neither is making people go abroad if they want to buy a condom the same as beheading them slowly with a blunt knife* for converting to another religion.

Try not to be a silly boy: it would be such a shame to miss the lovely Ball.

~M~

*I didn't watch the video ~~ just reading the description was enough for me. & I didn't care for the site it was on either; a sort of porn-site. But that doesn't mean that the account wasn't accurate or authentic; seemed indeed to appear on several different sites in the same google index.