Some of you may have heard about Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian teenager who sought asylum in Britain after his former boyfriend was executed by Iranian authorities for being gay. Facing deportation, Mr. Kazemi feared being executed himself in his home country, where the government openly hangs individuals presumed to be homosexual. Fortunately, after originally denying it, the British government recently granted Mr. Kazemi’s request to stay there.
This week, an Egyptian court sentenced five men to three years in prison and three years police supervision for so-called homosexual behavior. Four of the men tested HIV-positive, and human rights advocates around the world are condemning the move as both homophobic and HIV/AIDS-phobic.
Clearly, this type of government-sanctioned discrimination is not only immoral and unjust, it’s criminal. And until people are no longer persecuted for who they are, we will never as a people be free.
