LGBT Refugees and Asylees: Responding to the Needs of a Hidden Population

1. LGBT Refugees and Asylees:Responding to the Needs of a Hidden Population Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights The Rainbow Welcome Initiative

2. Safe Space Creating a safe space and establishing community rules.

3. Personal Reflections on the LGBT Community Reflecting on our own as well as society’s perceptions, stereotypes, and associations.

4. Managing Discomfort • It is important to identify and acknowledge why and under what circumstances we experience discomfort and strategize ways to move forward. • In what situations do you find yourself most uncomfortable? • Are there certain job responsibilities and/or tasks you find harder to fulfill?

5. Managing Discomfort Factors that may contribute to our discomfort: • Unfamiliarity or lack of exposure • Messages from family, friends, and community members • Negative images and stereotypes perpetuated by society

6. Managing Discomfort • Next steps: Making an action plan • Areas of strength • Areas of growth • Identify resources

7. Managing Discomfort • It is important to recognize and honor personal boundaries • Communicate what can be expected of you and make necessary alternative arrangements

8. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Different Cultural Contexts LGBT Terms • Sexual orientation: Refers to each person’s capacity for emotional and sexual attraction to, and intimate relations with, individuals of a different or the same gender. • Gender identity: Refers to each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth.

9. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Different Cultural Contexts LGBT Terms • Lesbian: Is a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. • Gay: Is used to describe a man whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other men. • Bisexual: Describes an individual who is physically, romantically, and/or emotionally attracted to both men and women. • Transgender: Is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

10. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Different Cultural Contexts • L, G, and B refer to one’s sexuality/sexual orientation. • T refers to one’s gender identity/expression. • The relationship between sex and gender is interrelated but they remain distinct identities.

11. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Different Cultural Contexts • Is being LGB a choice? • How do people know they are LGB? • Is homosexuality a mental disorder? • Are LGB persons predisposed to mental illness and/or substance abuse? • Is this a Western, contemporary phenomenon?

12. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Different Cultural Contexts • Why are people transgender? • Is being transgender a mental disorder? • Do I refer to a transgender woman as ‘he’ and ‘him’?

13. LGBT in Different Cultural Contexts • Cultural variables determine how one identifies, how one expresses her/himself, and how society reacts and responds to certain behaviors and identities.

14. LGBT in Different Cultural Contexts • Latin America • Machista and Cochón • Middle East • Active vs. Receptive • South East Asia • Designated spaces • No corresponding language • MSM and WSW

15. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Risks – State-Sponsored Persecution • Criminalization • Death sentence • Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Parts of Nigeria and Somalia • Impunity / official support for extra-judicial killing • Iraq, Pakistan, Uganda, Liberia, Zimbabwe, • Impunity: Abuse; trauma; murder; arbitrary arrests; • More than 130 countries

16. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Community Violence - Legal vs. Lived • Iraq • No legislation • Killing campaigns in 2009 and 2012 • South Africa • Same sex activity decriminalized • 10.5% MSM report being blackmailed* • “Corrective” rape against lesbians • Brazil • Gender realignment surgery covered by government • Highest recorded trans murder rate** *IGLHRC, 2011 **Transrespect vs. Transphobia, 2010

17. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Family and Domestic Violence as Persecution • Government or Authorities Unable/Unwilling to Protect • Coerced or forced marriage • Control of reproduction • Crimes of “Honor” • Killings • Family violence to coerce behavior • Children and Adolescents *IGLHRC, 2011 **Transrespect vs. Transphobia, 2010

18. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Civil War and Conflict • Higher risk of torture, particularly sexual torture • Greater vulnerability due to lack of family/community support • Gay men often marginalized due to focus on families, women and children in many relief situations. • Politicization of sexual orientation • Iran and Iraq • Uganda and Zimbabwe *IGLHRC, 2011 **Transrespect vs. Transphobia, 2010

19. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees “It was late one night in early April, and they came to take my partner at his parents' home. Four armed men barged into the house, masked and wearing black. They asked for him by name; they insulted him and took him in front of his parents. All that, I heard about later from his family. He was found in the neighborhood the day after. They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out.” -Iraqi male on his partner of ten years’ murder in April 2009 in Baghdad Human Rights Watch, 2010

25. UNHCR and Other Actors’ Responses • 2006 Yogyakarta Principles • UNHCR • 2008- UNHCR Guidance Note on Refugee Claims Relating to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity • 2010- “The Protection of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Asylum-Seekers and Refugees” • 2011-“Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons in Forced Displacement” • USG: 2011 speech by Secretary Clinton and December 6 memorandum by President Obama

26. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Countries of First Asylum • Continued persecution • LGBT still criminalized • Fear of community • Detention • Integration not a durable solution

27. Country Conditions for LGBT Refugees and Asylees Asylees and Asylum Seekers in US/Europe • Detention • Heightened risk of sexual- and gender-based violence • Denial of services • Transgender individuals especially vulnerable • Repatriation not a durable solution

28. A Hidden Population • No robust statistical analysis or precise demographic information • UNHCR does not identify or track • Nondisclosure • What we can infer

29. How to be an Ally Supporting and advocating for a community of which you are not a member.

30. How to be an Ally • Learning • Confronting biases • Following, not leading • Strengths-based approach (an empowerment model) • What strengths do your clients possess?

31. How to be an Ally An Iraqi teenage boy, who resettled with his parents and two younger sisters, comes to you one day after school alone. He tells you that he is gay and asks for information on available services for LGBT individuals. He is having a very difficult time keeping his sexual orientation secret from his family and friends at school; he has only told his best friend and now you. How would you approach this situation as an ally?

32. How to be an Ally • Establishing a rapport • Active Listening—it’s as easy as: • Affirming • “Thank you for sharing…” • Being sensitive • “I’m sorry you experienced that…” • Clarifying • “What does that mean? Can you explain that further?”

33. How to be an Ally How do I talk to my client about LGBT issues? If I think they’re LGBT, can I just ask?

34. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment • What does it mean for an agency to be safe for and inclusive of LGBT participants? • How do our daily choices and practices signal either support or disapproval of clients’ sexual orientation or gender identity? • Non-exclusionary vs. inclusive

35. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment • Language choice and usage • Conversations • Official documents • Facilities and physical markers

36. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment • Confidentiality • Physical space • Allocating time • Interpretation considerations • Other policies • Discrimination • Harassment • Grievance

37. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment • Domestic Violence One intimate partner seeks to control the thoughts, beliefs, or conduct of the other intimate partner, or to punish their partner for resisting their control. This may manifest itself as physical or sexual violence, or persistent or severe emotional and/or verbal abuse.  Other forms include: economic abuse, isolation from others, and other controlling patterns. Domestic violence can occur in any relationship regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, or sexual orientation.

38. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment • No one deserves to be abused.  • Abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and involve verbal behavior used to coerce, threaten or humiliate. • Abuse often occurs in a cyclical fashion.  • The purpose of the abuse is to maintain control and power over one's partner.  • The abused partner feels alone, isolated and afraid, and is usually convinced that the abuse is somehow her or his fault, or could have been avoided if she or he knew what to do. 

39. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment Underreported and under-recognized • DV rates in LGBT community = rates for heterosexual women (approx. 25%) • Hostility toward same-sex couples by law enforcement • Sometimes assumed that abuse must be mutual in same-sex couples • Reluctance to report due to double-stigma – myth of same-sex couples as unnatural, plus shame associated with DV • Failure to recognize situation • Male victims reluctant to report • Internalized homophobia

40. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment Additional risks: • Linguistic isolation and lack of knowledge • Fewer sources of support – family and community • Fewer sources of support – DV community and shelters • Threat of being outed • Coercion based on legal status or legal misinformation • Sometimes lack of support from and/or reluctance to acknowledge abuse by LGBT community • LGBT relationships may be considered unacceptable by family

41. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment M. is a male Middle Eastern asylee who moved in with an older man, who is assisting him financially. You don’t know if the asylee is gay or not, but you suspect he might be. The older man seems to have a large role in his life, advising him to take or reject job interviews, contacting resettlement workers and asking for information. M complains about this sometimes and has mentioned several times that he feels like he should move out. His caseworkers have supported him in this, but M keeps going back. Recently, M has come to language classes with bruising, and is inattentive and troubled. You suspect that M is a victim of domestic violence. M. is larger and stronger than the older man with whom he lives, and you also worry that M’s increasingly violent language when referring to the older man might indicate a risk that he could respond physically.

42. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment Bullying and LGBT teenagers: • One study estimates that teenagers in US high schools hear anti-gay slurs about 26 times a day • 1/3 of LGBT teens experienced a physical threat during the school year, and one survey shows that 22% skipped school in the previous month due to bullying • LGBT teens in U.S. schools are often embarrassed or ashamed of being targeted and may not report the abuse • LGBT youth feel they have nowhere to turn. According to several surveys, four out of five gay and lesbian students say they don’t know one supportive adult at school

43. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment Costs: • LGBT teen dropout rates are 3 times that of straight teenagers • LGBT teens are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual counterparts • LGBT teens are at risk because their distress is a direct result of the hatred and prejudice that surround them,’ not because of their orientation.

44. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment C. is a teenage refugee girl from Burma. She confides in you that she is being bullied in school, but that she can’t bear to tell her parents or discuss it. She tells you that she is accused of being a “lesbian”. You don’t actually know what her sexual orientation is, but she is being made fun of for spending a lot of time with another girl who students in the high school say is a lesbian. Her parents are concerned that she doesn’t have more friends and tell her to find other friends and spend less time with that girl.

45. Creating a Safe and Inclusive Environment E. is a six year old boy from a Muslim Eritrean family. He participates in a refugee family program, and his parents are attend multiple services. E. likes dolls, plays with girls more than boys, and says that he “wants to be a girl”. He is not interested in sports, and acts very effeminate, even at this age. His parents worry because he is not masculine enough and when they try to get him interested in cars or playing soccer with the other boys, he cries, which upsets them even more. E’s parents have heard about gay people, feel like they have to intervene strongly, now, to cure him before he grows up to be gay. They are a kind family, but you are worried that they may even hit the child in order to toughen him up.

46. Case Management: Housing and Employment Services “Sometimes I feel discriminated against at home. My roommates know and we don’t talk about it but sometimes they give me a hard time. They harass me. This is why I want to move out.” -A transgender asylee from El Salvador, commenting on her living arrangements

47. Case Management: Housing and Employment Services “Some of the other employees made fun of me because of how I talk and act. For a while, my manager was asking me to do a lot of tasks I did not see others doing. This was very hard for me. Later on, someone approached me and told me that this guy who was making me do all this work was not even a manager—he just wanted me to do his job for him...I never really felt comfortable there.” -A Mexican asylee, describing his first work experience

48. Case Management: Housing • Location • Roommates • Laws surrounding housing discrimination • Advocating and intervening • Creative problem-solving

49. Case Management: Employment • Pre-employment considerations • Having a conversation with clients • Investigating employers’ policies • Cultivating partnerships • Post-employment considerations • Safety • Self-disclosure • Harassment and discrimination

50. Physical Health • What are some of the issues your participants experience when accessing healthcare? • How might it differ for LGBT participants?