Parsi was born in Shiraz, Iran. As a gay Iranian, he felt alone until at age 15 he discovered solace in the Internet. Parsi began volunteering for underground gay organizations. At age 19, he began working for PGLO and networked with doctors to provide HIV testing. He responded to emails from suicidal gay teenagers. The strict laws against homosexuality forced Parsi to keep his work secret from friends and family. But in March 2005, Parsi realized the police were looking for him and fled from Iran to Turkey, where he spent 13 months. Unable to return to Iran, Parsi lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Activism
In 2001, Parsi had formed a small LGBT group online called Rangin Kaman, which was renamed as Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization in 2004. As the PGLO would not be recognized in Iran, a friend of Parsi's officially registered PGLO in Norway. The PGLO later became the foundation for Parsi's Toronto-based Iranian Queer Organization in 2006. Parsi later left IRQO and founded the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees in 2008. The organization's headquarters are in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and they provide services to all self-identified Iranian LGBTs worldwide. He began secretly working for the advancement of civil rights for lesbians and gays in Iran. In 2003, he helped organize a clandestine Yahoo chat group for gay Iranians, called Voice Celebration. The group had 50 participants, who exchanged views on how best to achieve civil rights. Less than three years later, he was asked to speak publicly in Geneva, Switzerland, at the second session of United Nations Human Rights Council and on the fourth anniversary all international media published some articles about Iranian gays and lesbians. Parsi was the executive director of the Iranian Queer Organization and director of the organization's online magazine, Cheraq for several years. In October 2008 he launched Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. Parsi has been working on Iranian queer asylum cases. He is an Iranian member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, based in Brussels, Belgium, and ambassador of Iran in the InternationalLesbian and Gay Cultural Network, based in Stockholm, Sweden. Director of the cultural committee at the Iranian Association of University of Toronto in 2007, Parsi is also a founding member of the Rainbow Railroad group based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Advisory Committee of the Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation. Parsi's autobiography, Exiled for Love, was written with Marc Colbourne and published by Fernwood Publishing in 2015.
On April 23, 2018, a Toronto Small Claims Court found Parsi liable for defamation of Soheila Amintorabi, who is also known as Shadi Amin, for activities taking place on the anonymous website "justice4lgbt.com". Parsi's position was that he was not responsible for the website and has no knowledge of the parties who operate it; however, Deputy Judge Ashby of the Small Claims Court found that "n a balance of probabilities, I am persuaded that Mr. Parsi was involved the creation and publication of the articles on justice4lbgt.com and for the email." "On a balance of probabilities" means that the court used the civil standard that a fact is more likely to be true than not, which is a lower standard than the higher "beyond reasonable doubt standard" in a criminal trial. Having found Parsi was involved with the website, the Deputy Judge found that certain articles published on the website "justice4lgbt.com" were defamatory, and awarded $25,000 in damages. Parsi's response to the ruling was made in a statement in which he said that "I am at peace with the outcome of the court and grateful that it ended the way it did" because he was "placed in a very difficult position." Parsi went on to say "In order to defend myself, I was continually asked to disclose the names of LGBT+ individuals who reside in Iran and may have had some connection with Justice4LGBT, the defamatory website." Homosexuality is punishable in Iran by death. Parsi stated that he believes the damages he has been ordered to pay are a small price to pay for the safety of these LGBT+ individuals in Iran. In a statement published on Justice4LGBT following the trial, the persons behind justice4lgbt stated "Mr. Arsham Parsi is a well-know Iranian LGBT human rights activist and he was not involved in creation, management, publication, distribution and operation of Justice4LGBT in any capacities." Amin has taken the position that Tabandeh, the director and coordinator of the website and author of at least one of the materials which Parsi was accused of authoring, is not a real person.
