Homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, and young men have been hanged for the supposed crime. Edison's mother didn't know he was gay. The police slapped his elderly father about his face and detained Edison's sister. When Edison (who asked that his full name not be used) reached his mother by phone, she begged him to get out of the country. Edison first tried sneaking across the border into northern Iraq, without success. He spent four days wandering in the mountains before returning to Tehran. With the help of his partner of five years, Milad Mahdavi, who had recently immigrated to Canada, Edison paid thousands of dollars to a people smuggler and an airport security official who agreed to look the other way. Edison flew to Cuba, and, eventually, to São Paulo, Brazil, where he secured refugee status.
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