This is such a horrible story with so many horrifying documentary photos, you might not want to look if you are a compassionate person. On the other hand, you ought to be upset. Deeply. We can't just pretend this is not happening.

It begins in Syria, with a 32-year-old man named Hawas Mallah who's been sentenced to death for sodomy begging to be shot in the head instead of thrown off the edge of the four-story Wael Hotel. A 21-year-old named Mohammed Salameh, also set to be executed, begs for the chance to repent. A judge ignores their pleas.

According to an eyewitness:

It began when ISIS militants blared on loudspeakers for men to gather. Then a black van pulled up outside the Wael Hotel, and Mallah and Salamah were brought out.

The first to be thrown off was Mallah. He was tied to a chair so he couldn't resist, then pushed over the side.

He landed on his back, broken but still moving. A fighter shot him in the head.

Next was Salameh. He landed on his head and died immediately. Still, fighters stoned his body.

The whole horrible story is here, reported by the UK's Daily Mail. This happens to gay men in Syria and Iraq regularly.

One gay young man who escaped Iraq a few years ago wrote a personal essay about the terror of being gay in Iraq for The Stranger in 2014.