WASHINGTON In the best-case scenario if Ramin Haghjoo and Nima Nia still lived in Iran, they would be married. Just not to each other to women, probably through arranged marriages. Perhaps they could have found women also attracted to their own gender and looking to hide the fact, like one of Haghjoos friends did. In a bleaker scenario, they would be dead or behind bars for the crime of being what they are: gay.

Instead, Haghjoo and Nia ended up in the United States, where they married each other in a joyful ceremony this August.

The couple came to the U.S. as refugees several years ago, after fleeing Iran for Turkey. Things are better here in many ways, and they see their story as a hopeful one for other LGBTQ Iranians. Theyre alive, theyre married, and they live openly as gay men.

But Haghjoo and Nia also find themselves in a country where the president tried to ban new refugees and immigrants from Iran and several other Muslim nations, on the argument that such people pose a threat to Americas safety. And they worry now about what will happen is already happening to LGBTQ people in a country under Republican rule.

They want Iran to change so that people like them can be accepted as gay couples. They want the U.S. to change so they can be accepted as gay refugees from Iran.

After so many borders crossed, what will my next country be after tonight? Haghjoo posted on Instagram the day of the 2016 election.

Ramin Haghjoos Story

Haghjoo, 31, grew up in a relatively supportive family in Tehran, but he still struggled. He came out at age 19 to a nurse, who urged him to tell his family. They accepted him, for the most part other than a brother who used abusive language against him until their mother threatened to take away the brothers inheritance.