Mert Beloglu, Contributor
Imagine, waking up next to your same-sex lover and a beautiful little infant every morning. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? Well, you are right. It is perfect.
It is perfect, only if you live in a country where same-sex marriage is lawful, acceptable, and respected.
Same-sex rights is a global issue that LGBTQ+ communities have always been fighting for. With the increasing open-mindedness in the world, some countries have created laws that recognize same-sex marriages and LGBTQ+ rights.
However, not many countries have done this. Out of 196 countries in the world, only 12 of them have enough respect for the LGBTQ+ community to legally same-sex unions. The rest either do not have any legislations specific to LGBTQ+, or they have long ago decided that the best way to deal with LGBTQ+ individuals would be to kill them.
In August 2015, at least 30 men were reportedly executed by ISIS for being gay.
In modern regions of the world like Western Europe and Canada, individuals can not only marry to someone same-sex, but can also hold hands and walk in public without being stared at. In other regions of the world, where religion and the idea of “honour” is a significant part of everyday life, gays are not treated as nicely.
In July 2015, a 14-year-old boy named Akbar Zargarzadeh of Iran was allegedly hanged at a summer camp for being gay. In 2005, a 16-year-old and a 18-year-old were publicly hanged for being gay.
In Russia in 2013, a gay man was beaten and stabbed to death by three people, who then proceeded to place the victim’s body in a car before dousing the vehicle in gasoline and setting it on fire.
It may be a long time before the East starts respecting gays and grants them rights as they do to straight people.
What I would like to say to all individuals who belong to LGBTQ+ community is to not lose hope. Remember that you are the most important person in the world, no matter what others say. And hopefully, the old ideas of traditional heterosexual marriages will disappear and all 196 countries will embrace a more peaceful, welcoming, and an inclusive environment for all.
