Last night in Toronto, Canada, Arsham Parsi, the spokesperson and secretary of human rights affairs of the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, gave an emotive speech at the joint Egale Canada/ARC International gala dinner.  This is the full text of his speech as supplied by the PGLO.

We have been in existence for three years, and through this period we have become recognized by many gay and lesbian organizations throughout the world.  We based most of our activities through internet communication.   We must communicate solely by internet as we do not have the freedom to work in a public forum in our country.

We do not have any sponsors locally in Iran as the religious extremists do not support gay rights, but would rather see all LGBT people silenced.

However, we are recognized by individuals and organizations that have been generous in their financial, political, and moral support.  Our main objective in the PGLO is to bring about a safe environment for all LGBTs in Iran whether it be at home, work, school, or in public; freedom from harassment, torture, imprisonment, and religious intolerance.

I mentioned that I am the spokesperson of this organization, but let me add that I see and value this job far beyond what a regular employee might assume its organizational position to be and work for it.

It is the most important thing in my life to be the spokesperson.  It is a strong love and devotion that I have within me.  There is a Music of Freedom that is in my heart.  It is bursting inside me.  I want everybody to hear this music, this music of freedom that my brothers and sisters in Iran cannot hear or are not allowed to hear.

I became the spokesperson voluntarily because a voice was needed to be heard above the shrill cries of gay condemnation of the Islamic government.

When my transsexual friend committed suicide under the pressure of her society and her family, and I saw her withered body and cold contracted hands on her breast I became the spokesperson.

When my friend, Nima, a young gay man took his life due to police brutality and under the pressure of his family by eating arsenic, and I saw his lifeless body that slept like a beautiful angel I heavily cried and I became the spokesperson.

When I saw my friends in the hallways of the central court of Shiraz, and heard their cries of pain from the lashes that had tortured them I cried too.

But this also made me stronger in my desire to speak out.  I learned about a gay couple who had celebrated with a private function their new lives together.

The security forces discovered this celebration and started to trace this couple.  Fortunately, this couple were able to escape detention, and one of them could escape to Turkey.

But we surely know that not many other gay people in Iran have been that much successful in getting through their cases and saving their lives.

When the Islamic government forbade the access of transsexuals to the public buildings in the big cities of Iran, when a gay man was severely beaten in a park in the central Tehran, when another gay was sentenced to the lash in Esfahan, when a group of my friends were detected in chat rooms and entrapped by the police, when another transsexual was severely beaten to the point where she lost 50 percent of her hearing in one ear, when gays were verbally and sexually abused in a police station in some cities of Iran, and in many other outrageous instances there was no one to speak for them and to reveal to the world what Iranian LGBTs suffer.

We have a critical situation in Iran that must be resolved.  Thus, I became the spokesperson of the PGLO to air the grievances and to show the world the true situation of persecutions that we suffer.  I call upon all noble-minded people to stop, listen, and make an effort to help us.

I had to escape from my homeland as a death warrant was issued by the Islamic government.

That is how the Islamic government rewards members of LGBT community for speaking out for human rights.

I have gone through many hardships in reaching my new homeland.  Today, I am truly glad to be in a supportive and modern society that is progressive and which understands exactly how I feel.

I am speaking tonight because so many of my brothers and sisters are caged birds, unable to sing a song of freedom.  I was able to take a flight of freedom through the efforts of PGLO and your help and reach here.

Other birds are waiting to fly freely.  They need to see a dawn of freedom in Iran.  I am all positive that this glorious dawn is not too far from now.  I am determined to register the PGLO in Toronto, Ontario, and to have an office where I can conduct the efforts of PGLO.

Iranian LGBT people need to be in a direct and tangible relationship with an organization that claims to be their voice in a broader spectrum.  How can they finely experience the sweet taste of unity and togetherness while seating lonely in their rooms?

I have arrived [in] Canada with a burden of responsibility of working for my LGBT friends.  With your help we can achieve all we set out to do.  I have received a welcome [in] Canada by very warm hands and I am sure that my hands will be taken with more hands.

Where are those arms that will open and embrace my tired and tormented body?  Where are those ears that will listen to my painful stories?  And where are those eyes and lips that will console my pains through the words that they can tell me?  They exist and I will find them. 

I am ready to give my hands and offer my shoulders to all my LGBT fellows and friends to put their heads on and cry for their time that has brought them this much of injustice.  I will summon their tears and motivate them to change their sighs of regret to the shouts for freedom in the battle against ignorance, outrage and injustice in our society.  

These lonely shivering hands are the representatives of all of the Iranian LGBTs hands.  Take my hands as their representatives and support us.

Do Not Forget Iranian LGBTs.  Do Not Leave Us Alone.