Two soldiers
who met during the war in Iraq shared their love story on The Ellen DeGeneres
Show today.
Nayyef and
Btoo, who are now married and living in Seattle, met in 2004.
Although it was
too risky to ask each other if they were gay, Btoo says ‘gaydar’ answered the
question for them.
‘He saw me and
started inviting me for dinner and food, we started to talk and my heart
started beating for him,’ Nayyef said.
But absolutely
no one could know.
‘It’s too
difficult to be gay in Iraq,’ Nayyef said.
‘They find out
about you and you either get tortured or get killed. So after our relationship
is going bigger and bigger, we felt like we could not stay (there). And at the
same time I was in danger because of my job working as a translator and that’s
when I applied for asylum to go live in the United States.’
Nayyef was
granted asylum but Btoo was initially not.
This resulted
in the couple going four years without seeing each other.
‘This time
(was) a really, really bad time,’ says Btoo. ‘He is my life.’
But they spoke
every single day even eating meals together while on Skype.
When they were
finally reunited, Nayyef quickly proposed and Btoo quickly accepted.
‘Believe me,
after that, love wins,’ Btoo says.
DeGeneres asked
what would happen if their families knew they are gay.
‘It’s not going
to be good,’ Nayyef said.
‘I just want to
tell them how much I love them. Especially my mom. I love her so much. But
that’s me, that’s how I came to the world. But my happiness is with him, and I
want to spend my whole life with him. I want to spend all my life with him.’
To help them
start that life, DeGeneres presented the couple with a check for $25,000.
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