AN IRANIAN GAY ACTIVIST WHO HAS FLED THE POLICE NEEDS YOUR HELP

Earlier today I received an urgent phone call from Arsham Parsi, the young General-Secretary of the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO), in Toronto (Arsham was granted polical asylum in Canada as a sexual refugee five months ago). Homosexuality is a crime in Iran, punishable by death.

Arsham told me of the plight of  Mani, a courageous Iranian gay activist who is 24 years old, and who has been serving as the Health Scretary of the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) in Iran for the last two years, providing AIDS and mental health counseling to Iranian LGBT people. (You can read an interview Mani gave me in July while he was still in Iran, about his work there, and published in Gay City News, by clicking here.)

A little over three weeks ago, Mani's employer in the pharmaceutical firm in Iran where he worked found out he was gay, and reported him to the police. The police -- who thus were able to figure out that Mani was the person who had given recent interviews to the BBC and to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about the persecution of gays and lesbians in Iran -- raided Mani's home several times looking for him. Fortunately, Mani was not at home when the police came to arrest him, and Mani took refuge temporarily at a friend's house.

Mani's father blocked Mani's bank account so that he could not withdraw monies he had saved, in order to try to prevent Mani from leaving the country. But, with the help of a little money from friends, Mani managed to escape Iran in fear of his life, before the police could arrest him.

Mani arrived a few days ago in Turkey -- but he had to spend most of the little money he had borrowed to bribe a "passer" to get him out of Iran and across the border. Mani is now in Istanbul, absolutely penniless, and has been sleeping in a bus station. He has no warm clothes to protect him against the very cold and rainy seasonal winter weather in Turkey. He has applied for international refugee status as a political asylum-seeker with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but the granting of such status is long and cumbersome, and at the moment Mani is entirely without resources to sustain his life.

Arsham Parsi told me, "We are a global gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered family, and we need to help our own who are in desperate need -- particularly courageous gay activists like Mani who have been persecuted for how they love and for defending the rights of our brothers and sisters. We at PGLO have scarcely any financial resources ourselves, since we do not ask dues from our membership, and while we have sent Mani a few paltry dollars, our treasury is bare."

The PGLO begs you to please consider making an urgent donation to help Mani  survive in Turkey until he can be granted official refugee status by the U.N.H.C.R. and find asylum in a gay-friendly country. Even $10 or $20 would be enormously helpful. You can help Mani now by clicking on the "Donate" button on the homepage of the PGLO website at http://www.pglo.net/ and using your credit card via the secure PayPal system.