Bay Area Reporter :: Out in the World: Thousands push for Switzerland s same-sex marriage referendum ebar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ebar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Dr. Bill Lipsky–
Five years ago this month, on April 25, 2016, terrorists disguised as deliverymen arrived at the apartment of LGBT activist Xulhaz Mannan in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. They removed the machetes hidden within the package they carried, then in front of his mother, hacked him and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy to death. His affront to their fanatic righteousness? Being an openly gay man working to gain human rights for LGBT people in a country where legal codes, religious dogma, and social convention marginalize their existence.
Xulhaz was 39 years old, Tonoy even younger. As the journalist Raad Rahman wrote after his assassination, “Bangladesh was never a safe place for a queer person, but for someone as out as he was it was especially dangerous.” Many advised him to leave the country. He refused. “He had the option of living anywhere in the world,” his niece explained, “but he chose to live in dangerous Dhaka, standing up to what he believe