Two young men who were executed in Iran two years ago will be remembered at City Hall today (Thursday, July 19) with a candlelight vigil.

Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and Bevan Dufty, along with community activists, will light candles in room 244 at City Hall at noon to remember Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were hung in 2005 for allegedly being gay and charged with raping a 13-year-old boy, according to Ariel Herrera, director of Outfront, the LGBT human rights arm of Amnesty International USA.

Mirkarimi, an Iranian American, told the Bay Area Reporter that the execution of the young men was "prehistoric and unacceptable" and that they "should not go unnoticed."

The vigil follows news reports last week in the International Herald Tribune that a man was executed earlier this month and that 20 more executions were scheduled within "coming days" based on "morality violations." Morality violations include "rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality," and are punishable by death, the article stated. The article further confirmed Iran's morality crackdown by reporting the arrests of about 1,000 individuals in May and public executions being carried out.

The vigil, organized by gay activist and blogger Michael Petrelis, will be in conjunction with similar events in Cologne, Germany; Moscow; and Warsaw, Poland, Petrelis said.

"[If] people want to come we welcome their participating," said Petrelis.

"I'm very heartened to see a grassroots culture coming together standing steadfast in the execution that is taking place against LGBT Iranians," said Mirkarimi, who is against capital punishment.

Herrera and Hossein Alizadeh, communications coordinator of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the B.A.R. that they weren't aware of any other actions being taken to remember the two young men.

"This anniversary is a sad reminder to all of us," said Alizadeh.

The B.A.R. reported two years ago that, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency, the two young men were executed after they were caught having consensual sex when they were 16 years old. After they were apprehended they were tortured for 14 months before their death sentences were carried out. The Iranian government maintained that the young men were executed for raping a 13-year-old boy and that the young men were over 18 at the time of the alleged crimes. Herrera maintains that at least one of the young men was a minor at the time of his execution and that there are conflicting accounts about Asgari's and Marhoni's sexual orientation.

"There are conflicting accounts," said Herrera. "We've heard conflicting reports and accounts of these boys are gay and these boys are not gay."

Alizadeh and Herrera were careful about identifying the young men and other individuals as gay due to the dangerous consequences of labeling any Iranian individual's sexual orientation. The Iranian government could use any media reports identifying individuals as gay to charge a person. In Iran, homosexuality is punishable by death.

Alizadeh told the B.A.R. that IGLHRC is concentrating on assisting LGBT Iranians who are seeking asylum in different countries while it monitors the situation in Iran. Alizadeh and Herrera, noted, however, that monitoring developments in Iran is difficult because of the secluded nature of the country. Yet they continue to receive reports that the revolutionary guard corps, which has been on a "morality campaign," has made dozens of arrests and performed executions for crimes ranging from adultery to homosexuality.

In May and June, Outfront released two news releases that said 87 people were arrested at a private party in Esfahan province in central Iran and charged with consumption of alcohol and "homosexual conduct." According to Alizadeh and Herrera, 60 of the people were released on bail on May 10, while 17 of the men were detained. Sixteen of those 17 individuals were released on bail during the first week of June. Those men were scheduled for a trial sometime during June, according to Outfront. It is unclear to human rights activists if the last person remains detained or has been released.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's office did not return messages seeking comment.

Herrera insisted that human rights activists need to pay attention to and work with LGBT Iranian activists, such as Arsham Parsi, executive director of IRanian Queer Organization (formerly Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization), which is based in Toronto, Canada, due to the "closed nature" of Iran as well as determine real allegations of obstruction to LGBT Iranian human rights.

"We need to be careful in terms of characterizing these cases as gay," said Herrera. "We need to pay attention to a lot of LGBT Iranians who are working very closely on these issues, [because] when we do finally have real LGBT cases it could be easily dismissed ... as another western invention."

Parsi did not return messages seeking comment.

Petrelis and Mirkarimi disagreed.

"If this were 1941 Germany ... I would not be silent, as a homosexual Jewish American," said Petrelis.

Mirkarimi added, regarding the execution of the two young men, "I don't think that we can tiptoe. It's important to be strategic ... but we can't tiptoe around something that is a blatant horrific action such as this."

For more information, visit http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/. For more information about LGBT Iranians, watch http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/03/030407_1.html. For more information about IRanian Queer Organization, visit http://www.pglo.net/.