ABC News ran a feature today about being gay in Saudi Arabia. In this country home to the most sacred place in Islam, Mecca, being gay is a crime punishable by corporal punishment or death.

Going under the pseudonym Samir, a 34-year-old gay man discusses life in a society where homosexuality is considered one of the worst sins.

I pray to God to help me be straight, just to avoid hell. But I know that I’m gay and I’m living as one, so I can’t see a clear vision for the future.

Samir has to guard his sexuality with the utmost secrecy. He cannot show any affection towards the same sex without arousing suspicion from family and coworkers.

The Saudi has a secret boyfriend in Thailand, where he takes long vacations. He also visits the more tolerent Lebanon on weekends.

Gays in Saudi Arabia are under constant threat from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a religious police force that recently arrested a man because his jeans and shirt were too tight.

The oil-rich country is notorious for remaining behind the times. It didn’t abolish slavery until 1962.