Photography by Ryan Pfluger in Los Angeles on October 1, 2015. Styling by Michael Cook. Groomer: Harper at Exclusive Artists Management. T-shirt by Calvin Klein.
This year has been one of extraordinary change for Subhi Nahas. Three years after fleeing escalating antigay persecution in Syria, he was granted sanctuary in the U.S., where he continues to advocate on behalf of fellow LGBT refugees. In August, Nahas took the fight to the United Nations Security Council, offering personal testimony of the atrocities being perpetrated against gay people in his home country, both before and under ISIS. It was a historic first and, in Nahas's eyes, imperative. "We may lack coordination as an international queer community," he says, "but we are responsible for supporting other LGBT people, wherever they are."