(Georgia) - R. Tim Brady, a senior at Emory University, wrote an opera based on the hanging of two young teen boys in Iran in 2005 as part of an activist approach to global anti-gay sentiment. Since the 1979 islamic revolution in Iran, an estimated 4,000 people have been executed for the crime of lavaat, or sex between two men. One particular execution captured the attention of R. Timothy Brady, a 21-year old music composition major at Emory University, while he was studying abroad in Italy during the summer of 2005. It was the case of Mahmoud Asgari, 17, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, who were publicly hanged in Edalat Square on July 19, 2005, after they were accused of being lovers. "I'm gay - that could happen to me," Brady says. "It doesn’t matter that they’re Iranian or they’re half way across the world, it still really hit home."
Note: Read full article on Southern Voice [4]
