Xulhaz Mannan was a Bengali gay rights activist. He studied International Relations at Dhaka University, finishing with honors, and later earned a Master's of Social Sciences in Peace and Conflict Studies. He worked for the US embassy in Dhaka as a protocol officer of the ambassador, and later worked for USAID. In addition, he was a writer and photographer, and in 2014, he founded Roopbaan, Bangladesh's first and only LGBT-themed magazine. He advocated for LGBTQ rights and in early 2016 organized and arranged a "rainbow rally" in Dhaka. However, the rally was canceled by police as Islamic groups threatened to kill anyone participating in it. On April 25, 2016, shortly after he publicly declared his sexual orientation online, Xulhaz and a fellow LGBT activist, Tanay Mojumdar (aka Mahbub Tonoy), were killed in a machete attack carried out by Islamist extremists. He was 39 years old. #LGBTQHistory #QTPOCHistory #QueerMuslimHistory #XulhazMannan #Intersectionality
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