ISIS throwing gays off roofs in Syria, Iraq—UN testimony

– Historic LGBT meeting – The meeting was organized by the United States and Chile in what US Ambassador Samantha Power said was a sign that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights are “being injected into the mainstream at the United Nations.”

Power called the meeting “historic” and “long overdue” at the United Nations, which turns 70 this year.

The event was open to all United Nations member states, but Security Council members Angola and Chad stayed away. China, Malaysia, Nigeria and Russia sent representatives, but made no statement.

More than 75 of the United Nations’ 193 member-states have laws on their books criminalizing homosexuality.

Adnan told the council that Islamic State taps into widespread homophobia in the Middle East.

“In my society, being gay means death and when ISIS kills gays, most people are happy because they think we are evil, and ISIS gets a good credit for that,” said Adnan.

Addressing the council, Nahas appealed to governments to grant safe haven to sexual minorities so that “they can again know security” and called for action to end the war in Syria, now in its fifth year.

Nahas told reporters after the meeting that LGBT was not “just a terminology invented by the West” and that sexual minorities in the Middle East “want their rights too.”

The United States is leading an international coalition that has vowed to defeat the Islamic State group, which declared a caliphate in June 2014 after seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The jihadist group now controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, and has gained a foothold in Libya, Yemen, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.