Documentary Shows Horrors Faced by Two Gay Iranians

Makers of an upcoming documentary called Golf Alpha Yankee explain their project this way: For LGBT people in Iran and other places in the world where being gay is a crime, taking off the mask is legally punishable by arrest, imprisonment, torture, or even execution.Golf Alpha Yankee tells their true story.

The film provides an intimate immersion into the world of LGBT people from Iran, who were forced to flee their home country, and are now waiting in limbo in conservative Turkey as asylum seekers with the United Nations. They hope to receive resettlement in the west, where they may one day be free to love without penalty.

The advocate reports, two years in the making, the film features interviews with LGBT Iranian refugees living in Turkey, awaiting decisions from United Nations officials about if, when, and where their applications for asylum might be accepted.

Although life in Turkey is far safer for LGBT people than it is in Iran and many other Arab countries, Turkey is still a challenging place for them, as the film shows.