By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
Two men in Bangladesh were reportedly hacked to death on Monday evening in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. One of the men was the editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine, as well as a USAID worker. Before joining USAID last September, he worked for the U.S. Embassy for eight years. Both men were openly gay and were leading activist in the LGBT community.
The Bangladeshi division of al Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam, claimed responsibility for the killings on social media.
“We are outraged.” @statedeptspox on murder of Xulhaz Mannan & another beloved #Bangladesh human rights activist pic.twitter.com/nYgoQgwv5Y
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) April 26, 2016
USAID identified the slain editor as Xulhaz Mannan on Monday, "Today, USAID lost one of our own," their statement read.
"He was the kind of person willing to fight for what he believed in, someone ready to stand up for his own rights and the rights of others," USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said in a press release.
Monday's attack is just one of many attacks in Bangladesh in recent years. A professor was hacked to death at a bus stop on Saturday and several bloggers have been targeted and killed, six in the past 12 months alone.
"We are outraged."@statedeptspox on murders of @usembassydhaka employee & a fellow LGBTI activist in #Bangladesh. https://t.co/jH9hcjYY13
— Department of State (@StateDept) April 25, 2016
Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh condemned the attacks. "We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the Government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders," she stated. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the killing a “barbaric murder.”
"An act like this simply is beyond words, unjustifiable, inexcusable," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Here’s what Jesse Ventura has to say about LGBT rights:
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