by Christopher Cappiello

Gay Iranian wins asylum in Britain

A gay Iranian teen whose asylum case was denied last year has been granted asylum after the U.K. Border Agency reconsidered his case, BBC News reports.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005. He later learned that his boyfriend in Iran had been arrested, convicted of sodomy and hanged. He claimed that he, too, would be hanged if he returned home.

“As I argued over the last 18 months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian peopleback to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or death,” Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes told Agence France-Presse. The lawmaker has been one of Kazemi’s strongest advocates in Britain.

After losing his initial case last year, Kazemi went to the Netherlands and sought asylum there. A European Union treaty, however, only allows for an individual to seek asylum in the first nation he or she enters in the EU. Dutch officials refused to hear the case on those grounds, causing an international groundswell of support for the young man.

“The U.K. Border Agency considers each case on its individual merits and will continue to provide refuge for those asylum seekers with a genuine need for protection,” an agency spokesperson told AFP. “We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed, and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the U.K. based on the particular facts of this case.”

Indian lesbian couple commit suicide

After suffering disapproval and harassment from relatives for years, two married Indian women who allegedly had a long-term lesbian relationship committed suicide by setting themselves on fire in bed, the Times of India reports.

Police in the southeastern Indian town of Sathangadu identified the women as Christy Jayanthi Malar, 38, and Rukmani, 40. They reportedly met in school many years ago and subsequently both married men. When Rukmani moved to a town near Sathangadu with her husband 10 years ago, the women were reunited and began a physical relationship.

The Times reports that the women’s families disapproved, with Rukmani’s relatives forcing her to marry another man after her divorce, and moving her to a different town to separate the couple.

On May 16, Rukmani reportedly went to Malar’s house after their husbands had left for work. When Rukmani’s relatives came looking for her, an argument ensued. In spite of the family members’ objections, the women insisted on remaining together at Malar’s house.

“Around midnight, they poured kerosene on their bodies and set themselves on fire,” an investigating officer told the Times. “They appear to have hugged each other during the final moments of their [lives],” he said.

The following morning, relatives found the charred bodies in an embrace.

The shocking story has sparked a discussion of LGBT rights in a country where sex between members of the same sex is still illegal in laws held over from British colonial rule.

“We have reached the stage where one has to accept relationships which are not termed normal,” lawyer and activist Sudha Ramalingam told the Times. “Everyone has the right, especially two consenting adults, to choose their way of life.”

Gambian president calls for beheading gays

President Yahya Jammeh of the tiny African nation of the Gambia told supporters on May 18 that he would seek to “cut off the head” of any homosexuals discovered in his country, giving gays and lesbians 24 hours to leave the country.

“The Gambia is a country of believers,” the 43-year-old ruler said, according to BBC News. “Sinful and immoral practices [such] as homosexuality will not be tolerated in this country.”

Jammeh also encouraged the government to adopt laws “stricter than those in Iran” regarding homosexuality.

The Gambia, a former British colony that gained independence in 1965, is estimated to be 90 percent Islamic, and Jammeh presents himself as a devout Muslim.

“What President Jammeh fails to realize is that there are a significant population of Gambians who are gay, and he has no right to ask them to leave,” said Carey Johnson, of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Council, according to BBC. “He’s fighting to maintain his control over the country, he finds the weakest group and lays all the problems at their door,” Johnson said.

The Gambia is the smallest nation on the continental mainland of Africa. With a tiny sliver of coast on the Atlantic Ocean, the country is primarily surrounded by neighboring Senegal.

Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994. He survived a coup attempt himself in 2006. Last year he earned international criticism for claiming to be able to cure HIV/AIDS with natural herbs.