Two gay men who were granted asylum are being sent back to Iran, a country where their sexual orientation places them in real and documented danger. This is not hypothetical. Everyone involved knows what awaits them.
In Iran, being gay is illegal. It has been punished with prison, torture, and execution. These are not rumors or exaggerations. They are part of a system that has been openly enforced for decades.
Asylum laws exist for this exact reason. They are meant to stop people from being returned to places where serious harm is likely and where the outcome is not uncertain. They exist to prevent governments from washing their hands of responsibility by calling lethal choices “procedure.”
If these men are returned, they will be made examples of. That process does not end in safety. It ends in death. And after years of public saber-rattling about Iran’s cruelty toward its own people, sending gay men back into that system becomes something else entirely. It is not standing apart from it. It is taking part in it. It is murder by proxy.
Some things do not need debate to be understood. They just need to be seen clearly. This is what our country is choosing to take part in.
Steven LaChance Blog 
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