Quote:
Originally Posted by Nat
WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- An Iranian national who has lived in the United States since he was a child has asked for political asylum because he is gay.
Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, says his personal safety would be jeopardized if he is deported to his native Iran after living in the United States for some 20 years.
"It's not something I can imagine," Abdollahi told ABC News. "It would be a very scary thing because I haven't hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media."
Abdollahi came to the United States as a boy with his parents, who were students at the University of Michigan. He was tagged for deportation after a protest in May.
Abdollahi told ABC he became aware of his sexual orientation as a teenager, about the same time he found out about his illegal immigration status.
Although Abdollahi was a minor when he came to the United States and would face a dubious future in Iran, ABC said Tuesday he faces long odds in winning asylum. "He's looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution," said immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer.
Abdollahi's letter to President Obama:
He is interviewed in the last few minutes of this video:
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Thank you for posting this. I am getting letters out to show support for this guy.
It would do us all a lot of good to understand how homosexuality in
many, many countries is a crime to be
punished by death via a government. Yes, in the US, we have homophobes galore and civil rights are still being sought (and there are the hate crimes), but, taking in government/state sponsored dealth penalities for one's sexuality is a whole other story!!