These brave gay men survived ISIS and addressed the United Nations
Two gay men who fled Syria after living under ISIS have spoken at the UN to tell of being gay under the regime.
Subhi Nahas and Adnan spoke at a historic meeting of the UN Security Council, which was the first of its kind to address LGBT issues.
The landmark closed-door meeting was held yesterday, and details were released to the press.
Responsibility was claimed by ISIS for the deaths of at least thirty men accused of ‘sodomy’, the council heard.
Nahas addressed the meeting to say that those accused of homosexuality in his Syrian hometown of IDlib, were thrown from rooftops, and that crowds cheered, including children.
“In the Islamic State, gays are being tracked and killed all the time,” said Nahas.
He now works for a refugee organisation in the US.
“At the executions, hundreds of townspeople including children cheered jubilantly as at a wedding,” Nahas continued.
Two member states did not attend the UN Security Council meeting – Chad and Angola.
Others with questionable histories on LGBT issues were in attendance, including China, Russia, Nigeria and Malaysia, but none spoke during the meeting.
Later in the meeting Nahas said: “I was terrified to go out. Nor was my home safe, as my father, who suspiciously monitored my every move, had learned I was gay.
“I bear a scar on my chin as a token of his rage.”
He later said: “Death threats followed me to Turkey. A former school friend from Idlib named Khalil had joined Islamic State.
“He relayed through a mutual friend that he wanted to kill me, aiming to go to paradise. I was terrified.”
There has been a spate of killings out of killings by ISIS, of men accused of homosexuality.
Last month, a video, shot in Palmyra, showed two Syrian men be thrown off a building before being stoned to death.
The terrorist group, which operates predominantly across Syria and Iraq, is notorious for filming videos in which captives – usually Westerners or opposing fighters – are brutally slaughtered.
It has also taken to executing men it claims are gay, by throwing them off of tall buildings and pelting them with rocks in IS-produced videos.
Members of the terrorist group, which has published a number of graphic videos featuring the murder of supposed gay men, holds power across parts of Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Footage of Nahas addressing reporters after the meeting is available via SABC news below:
