PARENTS TRY TO SET TEEN ALIGHT FOR BEING GAY
The parents of an 18-year-old in Azerbaijan beat and tried to set him alight after they discovered he is gay.
The group LGBT Azerbaijan Alliance reported that the parents of the young man, named only as M.N, attempted to burn him after dousing him with petrol.
“A lot of signs of violence on his body prove the fact of abuse,” said the organisation on its Facebook page.
He survived the ordeal, ran away from home and is now in a safe place, said the group.
M.N was apparently outed to his family by an anonymous Facebook blackmailer who had threatened to send them a picture of him participating in an LGBT activist meeting in July.
The organisation said that it believes that his life remains in danger. He is also unable to leave the country because his family took his personal documents and belongings.
Homosexuality is legal in Azerbaijan but remains a taboo in the predominantly Muslim country.
In 2012, the former Soviet republic was embroiled in an international furore for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, which is popular among Europe’s gay community.
UK activist Peter Tatchell at the time slammed the decision to hold the contest in a country in which “the LGBT community suffers periodic police harassment and homophobic violence and… LGBT people have no legal protection against discrimination.”
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