Subhi Nabas (Photo : Reuters)
Subhi Nabas, a gay refugee from Syria, shared with the UN Security Council the death threats he received from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) because of his sexual orientation.
He escaped in June from Turkey to the United States where he felt an overwhelming sense of being safe. The threat, relayed to him by a common friend, came from a former school friend who joined ISIS and expressed his intent to take Subhi's life.
While political prisoners of ISIS are beheaded, gay men are either thrown from towers or stoned to death. Several cases have been documented, complete with videos which prompted the 28-year-old to flee the Syrian city of Idlib, reports Daily Beast.
"I was born to a proud and respected family. I love my country, my culture, and my people. I am a refugee and I am gay," he said in his address on Monday to the Security Council, making history by being the first gay to elevate to the international body the case of homosexual killings by the terrorist organization.
He asked the council to help Syrians, including those trapped in the war-torn nation and have lost everything and became refugees. ISIS wants to kill gay people or for them to go underground and lose the chance to form a community. It also wants gays to go into forced heterosexual marriages, Subhi discloses.
Among the ways that ISIS determines if a person is gay is the way he walks, dresses, fixes his hair and other standards that if a man fails he is labeled as homosexual. ISIS also goes through phone records and creates fake social media accounts to trap gays as well as track Facebook friends.
In 2012, soldiers stopped the bus he was riding in while Subhi was on the way to the university. They took the passengers to an isolated location and assaulted him because he was effeminate. But he was eventually released. "I fear that one of them - or all of them - would rape and kill me. You see, those who condemn us for being different are often the ones who brutalize us sexually," the refugee shares.
He laments that "when [ISIS} kills gays, most people are happy because they think we are evil, and Islamic State gets a good credit for that."
The witch-hunt includes family members who would hunt and kill them, said the other refugee who used the pseudonym "Adnan" and testified by phone from Lebanon, reports Newsweek. His only communicates with his sister, but hopes to reconnect with his mother, although his father definitely rejects him.
Commenting on Subhi and Adnan's address, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said it is a sign that the issue got into the mainstream of the UN.
About 2 million Syrian refugees live in Turkey, of whom 400 are self-identified LGBT members, according to the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, where Subhi now works.
