Iran: Gay Man Behead by Fay Alleged Homophobic 'Honor Killg'

Contents:

• MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
• KILLED FOR BEG GAY: THE MURR OF REBEC WIGHT
• THE 6 COUNTRI EXECUTE PEOPLE FOR BEG GAY
• 13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH
• NEVADA FATHER MURRED SON FOR BEG GAY, FORMER FOSTER MOM CLAIMS
• MATTHEW SHEPARD FALLY LAID TO RT 20 YEARS AFTER HE WAS KILLED FOR BEG GAY
• MAN CHARGED WH KILLG BOY, 10, WHO REPORTEDLY ME OUT AS GAY
• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• ALIREZA FAZELI MONFARED WANTED TO LIVE AS A EE GAY MAN THE WT. HIS FAY IRAN BEHEAD HIM DAYS BEFORE HIS DREAM ME TE, SAY ACTIVISTS.
• MAP SHOWS WHERE IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY – 30 YEARS SCE WHO DECLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS DISEASE
• BEG GAY N (STILL) GET YOU KILLED
• THE DEATH PENALTY FOR BEING GAY?

MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR

Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was a "smart, funny" 21-year-old, no different than any other young man that was an "ordary kid who wanted to make the world a better place, " his parents October 1998, that all changed, when the openly gay llege stunt was abducted, beaten and tied to a fence life end a few days later, and wh me a wispread awarens of the dangers that members of the LGBTQ muny face every day. The homophobic btal killg also served as a talyst for progrs Ameri's laws and the two s that have passed, however, remas batable how far the untry has e sce the shock of that crime.

They later nfsed they had "veloped a roe which they'd pretend to be gay to w Matt's nfince, " Marsn said. (MORE: 'Gay panic' fense still ed vlence s may be banned by new feral bill)McKney h Shepard about 20 tim the head and face wh the end of the pistol, Marsn said, before the two stole Shepard's sho, got their tck and drove back to town. Agast the gay muny until after he grew up to bee very terted ternatnal human rights, particularly women's rights the Middle East and Asia, and he studied polil science, said Marsn.

Members of the Wtboro Baptist Church protted the funeral, picketg wh anti-gay Fred Phelps and his parishners traveled om Kansas to Laramie for the funeral and trial, prottg wh brightly lored signs and spewg hatred. McKney went to trial, and fense attorneys argued his vlent actns were "gay panic" -- a reactn to Shepard makg a sexual advance.

KILLED FOR BEG GAY: THE MURR OF REBEC WIGHT

McKney has cled to speak to ABC News while Henrson did not immediately rpond to a requt for WashgtonShepard's murr shed a light on the spe of feral hate crime laws, which at the time did not clu sexual orientatn or genr gay activists monstrate the streets of North Hollywood to prott agast the ath of Wyomg Universy stunt Mathew Shepard, Oct. "Beyond the feral hate crime law, the years sce Matthew Shepard's ath, among the most substantive legislative ws for the LGBTQ muny were the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell 2010, so gay ary members n serve openly whout fear of beg dismissed, and the legalizatn of same-sex marriage across the untry 2015. Michael Loccisano/Getty Imag, FILEFor Judy Shepard, one of the bt signs of cultural progrs is seeg Gay Straight Alliance groups rampg up schools.

THE 6 COUNTRI EXECUTE PEOPLE FOR BEG GAY

They had nsensual the Aceh provce of Indonia, homosexualy is a crime that n be punished this btal and gradg More: Disturbg Details of Executns Emerge From Chechnya's 'Gay Torture Camps': ReportEverywhere the world, LGBTQ people are routely harassed, discrimated agast, beaten, and even murred for simply beg who they are. In 74 untri around the world, homosexualy remas a crime — an egreg nial of equal rights unr the law for untls people. Half of the untri never follow through on this absolute threat, but e other methods to strip a person of are the six untri that actually kill people for engagg homosexual acts.

But the polil ele, by nature, shap the laws and their extremely nservative worldview classifi homosexualy as a crime punishable by ath. Stong to ath is another form of public executn  a untry that kills hundreds of people each More: Taiwan Be First Place Asia to Legalize Same-Sex MarriageNigeriaRunng unter to much of the rt of the world, Nigeria’s print cid to strengthen anti-homosexual laws 2014.

Earlier this year, two men were shot public by the terrorist group after beg found havg More: Lebanon Jt Celebrated Its Very First Gay Pri ParaSudanThe first two tim a person gets ught havg gay sex Sudan n lead to 100 lash and imprisonment up to five years. YemenFollowg a civil war 1994, Yemen adopted Sharia law and clared that homosexual acts uld be punished wh ath. In recent years, another civil war has torn the untry apart and the ensug chaos has led to the executns of numero gay men.

13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH

After several weeks of fierce nmnatn by world lears, the sultanate announced wouldn’t enforce the ath penalty for people engagg homosexual acts. Whether Bnei will keep s word remas to be seen, but the small untry on the island of Borneo near Malaysia is not the only natn where gay men and women are beg sentence for the crime of beg gay some untri is rooted the terpretatn of Sharia law, acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn’s (ILGA) report on state-sponsored, which means “path, ” is not so much a legal system as a gui for helpg people fd life’s answers through Islam, as people unrstand acrdg to tradnal and early terpretatns.

D., after the ath of the Prophet ath penalty for gay acts is rived om people’s terpretatns of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, and the Hadh, or the acunts of the saygs of the Prophet Muhammad.

The acunts differ on the method of killg, and other acunts suggt lser penalti for homosexual acts, pendg on the circumstanc. An creasg number of Islamic scholars are re-examg what the two guis are teachg about same-sex Islamic untri mete out the ath penalty for crim other than homosexualy. On a more posive note, the are the untri where same sex marriage is officially intify the untri where beg gay is still legally punishable by ath, 24/7 Tempo reviewed var reports on human rights and homophobia by non-prof anizatns providg help and legal advice to mori, cludg members of the LGBTQ muny across the world.

NEVADA FATHER MURRED SON FOR BEG GAY, FORMER FOSTER MOM CLAIMS

YemenIn Yemen, the law stat that unmarried gay men will be punished wh 100 whip lash or one year prison, but married gay men face ath by stong. Gay women are to be imprisoned for up to three January 2019 a man Iran was hanged after beg found guilty of havg sex wh another man.

In 2007, then-Print of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadejad famoly said durg a vis to Columbia Universy: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like your untry. Two of the most shockg measur were punishg thiev by amputatn and makg homosexual acts and adultery pal crim.

MATTHEW SHEPARD FALLY LAID TO RT 20 YEARS AFTER HE WAS KILLED FOR BEG GAY

Not only did ban gay marriage, but also banned the registratn of gay clubs, societi and other anizatns supportg the LGBT muny. While this law is applied across the entire untry, 12 northern stat have their own laws, punishg gay men and women wh ath by stong.

The punishment for other gay activi, fed as "acts of lt, " is also imprisonment but between two months and two years.

In 2012, a newly adopted provisnal nstutn ma Somalia's terpretatn of Sharia law "the supreme law of the untry, " makg homosexualy a crime that n be punished by floggg or the ath penalty. The legal lgo n be terpreted as makg all male homosexual terurse a pal crime but n also mean that 's only for forced male homosexual terurse. There is no rerd to date of nsensual homosexual acts beg punished by anythg but jail terms of differg lengths and f.

MAN CHARGED WH KILLG BOY, 10, WHO REPORTEDLY ME OUT AS GAY

The untry's Penal Co stat that "rnal terurse agast the orr of nature" — which n mean homosexualy, even though 's not explicly mentned — is punishable by a fe and/or imprisonment om two years to life. 2017 was close behd wh 53 died acts of gome vlence, like Frank Yazzie, a gay Navajo man who was cut half and stuffed two trash bags 2009. It was a factor dozens of murrs the last 20 vlence claimed the life of Michael Stt Goucher, a 21-year-old whe gay man who met one of his assailants onle.

357 Magnum pistol, cludg three fal, and fatal, skull-cshg an tercepted jail letter McKney wrote to Shepard's other attacker, Rsell Henrson, while the two were awag trial, McKney ed a gay slur to scribe Shepard. "Why there are discrepanciWhether due to nonexistent laws or nsistent reportg, lol law enforcement agenci rarely report LGBTQ aths to feral thori that track hate crim — even if the killer ed slurs, rpond vlently to rmatn that a person was gay or transgenr, or showed signs of overkill.

Many of the aths noted earlier reports didn’t clu nam, but we were able to gather nam for most victims by piecg together intifyg rmatn om other reports, cludg media reportg advocy studi and police, we searched through several reports and onle listgs of LGBTQ murr victims, cludg Gay History Wiki, Internatnal Transgenr Day of Remembrance, In Memoriam: Lbian Murr Victims, Unerased: Countg Transgenr Liv, the Genr Public Advocy Coaln’s 50 Unr 30 report and a Human Rights Campaign report documentg hate crim between 1998 and 2002. Siarly, we didn’t clu victims whose attackers ed the gay panic fense or people victimized at gay clubs unls we found other ditns that they intified as members of the LGBTQ muny. Matthew Shepard was fally laid to rt Friday at the Washgton Natnal Cathedral 20 years after beg killed by two men bee he was gay.

GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

The boy, Anthony Avalos, had recently e out as gay, a unty official said, and some spect that homophobia played a role his ath. McDonnell cled to discs a potential motive but he did tell reporters that homophobia “has not e up our vtigatn as a motivatn at this time.

”Anthony AvalosHowever, Avalos’ uncle David Barron, the brother of Heather Barron and a -worker of Leiva’s, told NBC News that Leiva has a history of homophobia.

Her boyiend, Isro Aguirre, was sentenced to ath earlier this Angel County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told The Los Angel Tim that the possibily that both Anthony and Gabriel were targeted for beg gay was particularly heartbreakg. "WARNING: This feature ntas language that some rears may fd nights earlier, on Tuday 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard walked alone to a dive bar ptn, Judy and Dennis Shepard at the Matthew Shepard Foundatn Denver last weekThe openly gay Universy of Wyomg hman had jt met up wh iends to plan LGBT awarens week on the town's he uldn't persua them to jo him for a beer the Firi Lounge, the 21-year-old somehow end up chattg to two roofg workers, Rsell Henrson and Aaron McKney, both the same age as pair saw an easy mark the 5ft 2, slightly built County Sheriff Dave O'Malley, who was lead vtigator the se, says: "McKney's own statement said he and Rsell went to the bathroom at the Firi bar and they planned to act like they were gay to try to ga Matthew's nfince. It is a momento honour not even acrd to another proment gay martyr, Harvey Milk, the San Francis polician assassated the Denver cy centre offic of the LGBT rights foundatn named after her son, Judy Shepard, 66, is fightg back predicted Friday's ceremony would probably be more emotnal for her than the funeral bee she felt so "numb" immediately after her son's source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A vigil for Shepard New York Cy 1998The origal service, amid snow flurri the fay's hometown of Casper, Wyomg, on 16 October 1998, was picketed by an anti-gay preacher om Kansas.

ALIREZA FAZELI MONFARED WANTED TO LIVE AS A EE GAY MAN THE WT. HIS FAY IRAN BEHEAD HIM DAYS BEFORE HIS DREAM ME TE, SAY ACTIVISTS.

Reverend Fred Phelps of Wtboro Baptist Church and his flock, who clud children, held plards dbed wh homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that the ad stunt was burng Shepard, 69, remembers law enforcement makg him wear a bullet-proof vt to step outsi the Epispal church, which had been sured by bomb-sniffg dogs.

Shepard's murr stoked the perceptn of Cowboy Country and flyover stat general as a danger zone for gay at his office the cy of Cheyenne, McKney trial lawyer Dn Ctis matas was a robbery gone bad, even while he accepts sexual orientatn was a factor.

"However, McKney's own gay-bashg rhetoric damns him the ey of source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Thoands gathered outsi the US Capol for a vigil after Shepard's athDurg a police nfsn, he said he began to attack Shepard bee the stunt had put his hand on his leg durg the r ri.

MAP SHOWS WHERE IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY – 30 YEARS SCE WHO DECLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS DISEASE

" Yet another statement to police, he said Shepard simply looked like he was about to grope the jailhoe after his arrt, McKney reportedly wrote to another mate's wife: "Beg a verry [sic] dnk homofobick [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag wh my gun, ready at hand. "At trial, McKney's lawyers argued that Shepard had ma their client fly to a rage by touchg his the judge dismissed this "gay panic" a legal strategy - where crimal fendants s of vlent asslt argue they were provoked by an unwanted same-sex sexual advance - is still admissible all but three US stat, acrdg to the Williams Instute at UCLA School of Law.

Sheriff O'Malley rejects any attempt to downplay the anti-gay element the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Rev Fred Phelps and his flock prott Laramie 1999"We have never disunted ever that the ial motivatn was robbery, " he says. The moment was re-enacted as a climactic scene 2002 HBO movie The Laramie the angel actn, was replited two years ago Orlando, Florida, when Wtboro Baptist Church tried to dispt the funerals of gay people killed a mass shootg at the Pulse nightclub.

It also says LGBT Amerins n be fired for their sexualy 29 feels gay rights "took a U-turn" unr the Tmp admistratn. "All of them are that circle of faiary of extreme right-wg relig attus, " she says of the print's bet, " particular to the gay muny, to anybody who's not straight whe Christian.

BEG GAY N (STILL) GET YOU KILLED

However, Sheriff O'Malley mak clear that theory is not supported by the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Judy Shepard (L) at the Whe Hoe 2009 for the passage of the anti-hate crim bill named after her son and a black man killed by whe supremacistsThe Old Buckhorn Bar & Parlor Laramie has a mirror pocked by a bullet hole, and walls that bristle wh mounted antelope, buffalo and patron, Jt Bmmet - who proudly scrib himself as "third class whe trash" - says US progrs on gay rights sce Shepard's ath is to be mend. " Back at the end of the last lennium, many Wyomg apparently thought gay people were as rare on the high plas as jackalop, the state's mythil antlered ptn, (L-R) Universy of Wyomg LGBT stunts Js Fahlsg, Carlos Gonzal and Rihanna KelverShepard's murr - together wh the 2005 gay wboy love story Brokeback Mounta - helped dispel that Connolly, a Universy of Wyomg genr and women's studi lecturer, explas.

THE DEATH PENALTY FOR BEING GAY?

"I thk 20 years ago some people Wyomg hontly didn't believe they had met anyone who was gay or lbian, " she says. She reunts facg a "horrific" backlash last year om angry voters when she troduced a gay rights source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A dirt road near where Shepard was left to dieA Democrat, she is one of a handful of female lawmakers Wyomg. "I would be the first person that would tell a joke about gay Amerins and, uh, the word fag rolled off my tongue very easily.

"And when I got volved the vtigatn, I was forced to teract wh Matthew's iends, many of which were gay and lbian. Ali Fazeli Monfared, a 20-year-old gay Iranian man, was allegedly killed an “honor killg” by some of his male fay members after they found out he was gay, acrdg to an LGBTQ rights group Iran and Monfared, who was known as Alireza by iends and fay, lived a cy southwt Iran.