9 Gay Men and a Boy Executed by ISIS

In the latest example of atrocities committed by ISIS, two groups of radical Islamic militants operating in Syria staged public executions, then destroyed all video evidence.

Dawn Ennis

The Advocate's news editor Dawn Ennis successfully transitioned from broadcast journalism to online media following another transition that made headlines; in 2013, she became the first trans staffer in any major TV network newsroom. As the first out transgender editor at The Advocate, the native New Yorker continues her 30-year media career, in which she has earned more than a dozen awards, including two Emmys. With the blessing of her three children, Dawn retains the most important job title she's ever held: Dad.

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Dawn Ennis

September 22 2015 11:52 PM EST

December 11 2017 7:15 AM EST

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Members of the organization known as ISIS recently murdered seven men in central Syria and two more men in the north as well as a boy of undetermined age, all accused of being gay, a human rights group has revealed. The executions were reported by Gay Star News, a U.K.-based news site.

These brutal killings of allegedly gay men by ISIS, uncovered by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, are just the latest in a series of on-camera atrocities that shocked the world this summer. The videos were taken on a beach in Libya, where a large group of Coptic Christians were beheaded, and others at public rallies in the Syrian town of Homs, which showed crowds cheering as militants threw bound men, accused of being gay, to their deaths from the rooftops of a high-rise.

The head of the monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told Agence France-Presse the executions were in fact public but all recordings made at the event were erased or destroyed.

More than 3,000 people, including at least 1,800 civilians, are estimated to have been killed by ISIS since it announced its caliphate in June 2014, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.