LGBTQ people in Afghanistan are holding out hope they’ll be able to flee the country

Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian organisation that helps rescue LGBTQ refugees.

Life was already precarious before the Taliban took over. Gay men and women were subject to arrest from security forces, the erstwhile allies of Washington, and many who did not conform to traditional gender roles faced harassment and discrimination just going about their daily lives.

But bad situations can become much worse. For LGBTQ people in Afghanistan, precarity has given way to despair, Yahoo News reports.

«The Taliban said, ‘If we find the gays or adulterers, we will kill them,», Aarash, a gay man in a city taken over by the group in early August, told Insider (their real name is being withheld for their safety).