The New Underground Railroad

IRANIAN QUEER RAILROAD FOUNDED
By Doug Ireland

A new organization, the Iranian Queer Railroad, has just been launched, modeled on the 19th century Underground Railroad that used various routes and safe houses to bring American slaves to freedom in Canada. Now, the courageous young Iranian queer organizer Arsham Parsi is doing the same thing to get persecuted LGBTers out of Iran, temporarily find them refuge in neighboring countries - especiallyTurkey - and help them find their way through the redoubtable maze of international asylum procedures until the UN High Commissioner for Refugees grants them official refugee status and so, at long last,they can only then be admitted to a gay friendly country and gain legal asylum status as refugees from sexual persecution. There are hundreds of these gay, lesbian, and transgendered Iranians languishing in stateless limbo in squalid conditions and homophobic cultural surroundings who need to be saved. To read more, click on: http://www.irqr.net/English/160.htm