Mahmoud Hassino sleeping on a friend's sofa in Istanbul. After leaving Damascus, Mahmoud lived in Turkey for around three years, from where he worked as a journalist covering the conflict in his nativ...

Wissam performs a dance in high heels on the catwalk at the Mr Gay Syria contest.

Shayma's breasts, lashes, clothes and some makeup on their bed at home, as they prepare before hosting a drag event at a popular queer night spot in Heidelberg Shayma is a Tunisian drag performer and...

Nasser (29) from Baghdad, Iraq, walking past the Shia Saida Zainab mosque in the Damascus suburb of the same name. Nasser says Shia militiamen caught him during a homophobic attack on him and his boyf...

At birth, intersex children â€" who are born with several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, sex hormones or genitals that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female b...

Wael watches TV at home whilst his recently born kittens climb on the curtains and sofa. He is an intersex trans man from Casablanca, Morocco, prays during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He now li...

Mahmoud Hassino (sitting centre), who is representing Mr Gay Syria at the Mr Gay World competition's sports challenge event on a beach in Malta. Mr Gay Syria, Hussein Sabat wasn't given a Schengen vis...

Originally from the southern Turkish city of Adana, Bella was a familiar face at the recently-banned Istanbul Pride marches and at demonstrations supporting LGBTQ rights in Istanbul. She was also an e...

Hamoudi smoking a cigarette at a gay club in Berlin. Returning to his native Raqqa in 2011 to join anti-regime protests, Hamoudi and friends came to form a group called 'Our Rights Movement' in 2013,...

Ali Reza (L, 28) and Pedram (19), from Tehran and Shiraz, Iran. They live together in a house well known amongst the Iranian LGBT community, Ali Reza and Pedram place a plastic sheet over their garden...

Wael is an intersex trans man from Casablanca, Morocco, prays during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He now lives in Bergen, western Norway, where he was given asylum and able to change his legal...

LEFT: Wissam (23) Damascus, Syria. ''No matter how much we are different, we shouldn't argue. ''I studied accounting" $150 RIGHT: Ammar (19) Damascus, Syria. ''I'm Gay and I'm proud''. 200 Turkish Li...

Hussein's birthday celebrated in Taksim. He was refused a Schengen visa on the same day (the day before supposedly departing), and won't be able to attend the Mr Gay World 2016 competition in Malta.

A group of Iranian friends who are all claiming asylum in a third country based on their sexuality and/or gender identity in Merjan's (right) living room. Merjan died a few months after this photograp...

'Bissam' is a gay Iraqi actor and former US army translator. Here 'Bissam' watches a Syrian TV series (much like the Iraqi series he used to act in back in Baghdad) in his cramped rented room in the o...