Following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and the chaos that engulfed the region in its aftermath, many Iraqi ga men left their country and fled to neighboring countries, including Syria and Turkey. Despite Syrian law that prohibits homosexuality — and before the onset of the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS — the option to relocate across the border into one of the most secular countries in the Middle East offered asylum from Iraq’s far-right religious militia groups, who to this day target and persecute gays based on either fact or suspicion. See photojournalist Bradley Secker's report here.