He’s not doing it for gays, his base and would do just as bad or worse to gays if given the opportunity, and they’re working towards it. He’s doing it for the oil, pure and simple.
They could bring back the socially progressive Pahlavi Dynasty, but it would still take decades of incremental social reforms and education to even reduce the “crime” of homosexuality from a death sentence to life imprisonment, let alone neutral laws. See Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Uganda, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates for further details.