İsa Şahmarlı

İsa Şahmarlı (ca. 1993 – January 22, 2014) was an Azerbaijani LGBT activist and chairman of the organization Azad LGBT. He was one of the first publicly known queer voices in Azerbaijan and became nationally known through his public suicide, which became a symbol of the fight against homophobic hatred in Azerbaijan.

Life Şahmarlı was born in the early 1990s in Azerbaijan. Little is known about his early life, but he reported in interviews that he experienced rejection from his family due to his sexual orientation. In a 2013 interview, he said: "I wish our society wasn’t so prejudiced. Before you hate, get informed about homosexuality. I want LGBT people to be brave… If you want it, you can make it."

Şahmarlı was the founder and chairman of the organization Azad LGBT, which advocated for the rights of sexual minorities in Azerbaijan. As one of the few openly gay activists in the country, he tried to make queer life visible and to resist social stigmatization. He appeared in media and was active on social networks to raise awareness about discrimination. Nevertheless, his work was severely hindered by Azerbaijan’s restrictive political and social environment. Lala Mahmudova, who led the Azad LGBT organization after him, explained that his suicide drew attention to the country’s structural homophobia and gave many queer people courage: "His last words show that his death was a message. He committed suicide with the LGBTQIA+ flag – that was a sign."