Iran: A documentary exposing the consequences of the extremely harsh anti-gay laws promoting imprisonment, torture and execution of the LGBT community is being produced to raise awareness and tell the world what gay people suffer in Iran.
“The documentary called Golf Alpha Yankee “provides an intimate immersion into the world of LGBT people from Iran, who were forced to flee their home country (and are now hoping) to receive resettlement in the West, where they may one day be free to love without penalty,” says towleroad.com.
Golf Alpha Yankee wants to expose the untold stories of gay Iranians in places that can be a matter of life and death. “Many Iranians have suffered imprisonment and physical torture at the hands of the police just because they were suspected of being homosexual,” adds out.com.
The documentary film’s director and producer Rick Flynn says he want to tells the story of these lives through real testimonies and fictionalized dramatizations that expose the harsh conditions that Iranian LGBT individuals face.
Flynn has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help cover post-production costs to make the film possible and to generate awareness for their stories. The campaign, which has raised about a third of its US$30,000 goal, runs until August 17.
The director and his team have hours of footage got over the last two years with the help of grants. However, their ability to deliver a finished product is stuck for want of funds.
Iran’s Islamic Penal Code criminalizes any consensual same-sex relations with punishment ranging from 100 lashes for sexual relations between women to death penalty for those between two men.
The law also criminalizes other non-sexual acts between members of the same sex, including touching and intimate kissing, which is punishable by up to 74 lashes.
Since 1980, when the current Islamic regime came to power under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed, according to estimates by the exiled Iranian gay rights group Homan.
However, Iran insists that it does not execute people for same-sex relations, and that gay people who have been executed have either committed rape, murder, or drug trafficking,
You can watch the campaign video here:
Source: out.com; towleroad.com
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