The following email has been received by the IRanian Queer Organisation in Toronto from a young gay man who was studying at school in UK and, after difficulties with the UK Home Office over asylum managed to flee England, ending up in the Netherlands.  The letter is published here as written.

Hello Dear IRQO,

I have got very surprised, very angry of this article and I do not understand really what is point of President of Iran.  If Iran do not have any homosexual then I do not understand who I am then because I am an Iranian Gay and I have so many problem back my country where is Iran because of my sexual orientation my is in danger in Iran then what is that?

My purpose of this letter is to kind of answering President Ahmadinejad and to say that I do exist as an Iranian homosexual and it does not matter where I am.

Best regards,

Mehdi (family name withheld by UK Gay News)

■  UK Gay News published Mehidi’s story about his education in England and when his student visa was about to run out almost a year ago, how his application to the Home Office was turned down by a tribunal.  According to his uncle who lives in UK, the ‘judge’ at the tribunal did not realise that the calendar used in Iran is not the same as used in the West.

At the time, he was so scared of being returned to Iran – his boyfriend had already been executed.

The next UK Gay News heard was that he had managed to get to Germany, where he faced deportation back to UK.  Still scared, he managed to get to the Netherlands, where he is currently awaiting a decision by the Dutch government on his asylum application.

SEE ALSO

Don’t Leave Iranian Gays Abandoned.  By Mehdi.   This article was written by a 19-years-old gay Iranian who tells how, while he was a student in London, his boyfriend back home was executed for being gay.  Mehdi says he was scared of returning home and meeting the same fate when his student visa expired last year – and of his asylum application to the Home Office.  (UK Gay News, April 18, 2007)

Iranian President’s Official Website Deletes His Columbia University Comments About Gays.  The reference to there being no gays in Iran, made by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University, has been removed from the Persian language part of the president’s official website.  (UK Gay News, September 25, 2007)

Iran Has No Gays, Ahmadinejad Says.  Commentary by Charlie Hinton.  Iran has no gays, Ahmadinejad says.  But who are those queers protesting in Toronto? Why does Pegah Emambakhsh fear she will be killed if she returns home? ... (UK Gay News, September 25, 2007)

International Gay Human Rights Group Deplores Ahmadinejad’s ‘No Gays’ Statement.  Today, during a controversial talk at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum, Iranian President Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad categorically denied the existence of homosexuality in Iran.  (UK Gay News, September 24, 2007)

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Posted: 27 September 2007 at 00:00 (UK time)