''They told me to take off my clothes to rape me or they would kill me immediately. This moment was the worst moment in my life.... I told my family that I was beaten by them, but I did not dare to tell my family that I was raped by them. I could not say it, it's too much shame.''

''Kamal,'' a gay man in Iraq who says he was kidnapped and raped by a militia for 15 days, noting that they figured out that he was gay because he had shaved his chest. [video] (CNN)

''Gay men and lesbians in Iraq face a lot of risks right now, because homosexuality is sometimes interpreted by people in Iraq as being a Western import. So they can sometimes be targeted by insurgent groups or militias, in part, because of animosity toward the West and, in part, because homosexuality is not well-accepted in Iraqi society.... The biggest threats right now are from militia organizations, who will attack and actually sometimes kill gay men and women.''

Scott Portman of the Heartland Alliance, a group that promotes human rights worldwide. (CNN)