Queer and non-queer viewers alike paid rapt attention at Monday night’s screening of Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World.

There was occasional laughter during interviews with men and women about experiences of discovering of their sexuality in the documentary, directed by John Scagliotti.

There was also plenty of pathos in the film’s accounts of persecution still faced by gay, lesbian and transgendered people around the world.

One scene, for example, centred on an Egyptian man’s heartache and rage after learning the guilty verdict against his friend, who was charged in infamous “Cairo 52” case, where 52 men were arrested and tried in 2001 for crimes ranging from ‘habitual debauchery’ to ‘contempt for religion’.

A panel discussion followed the screening, featuring Pride Toronto’s Grand Marshals Victor Mukasa and El-Farouk Khaki, plus South African-born activist, Zanele Muholi. Each spoke about Canada’s role in advocating globally for human rights.

Muholi, a celebrated photographer, outlined how films like Dangerous Living help raise awareness of the struggle against homophobia.

“It’s important to communicate the queer movement… we have existed and fought to live a better life,” she said. “But there are still many struggles to fight.”

Muholi co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a lesbian organization based in Gauteng, South Africa.

She voiced her belief in the necessity of recording human rights abuses to push for political agendas that expunge hatred.

“We have to document those known and not known, each and every person,” she said.

Audience member Syrus Marcus Ware commented on the film’s theme of acceptance, stating her hope that documentaries like Dangerous Living will shed further light on human rights deficits among gay minorities.

“There is so little for people of colour, immigrants, refugees and LGBT outside of North America,” she said.

However, warned Muholi , there is still a long road ahead for gay equality worldwide.

“I believe invisibility is an oppression on it’s own,” she said.