Calling all North Bay LGBTQIA+ tech folx — students, workers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts alike! Are you looking to up-skill, find a new tech career or simply want to network and meet like-minded people from our diverse, queer community? Then, friends, we’ve got an event for you.
Join us for a chill Friday night at the first Out in Tech gathering in Santa Rosa, hosted by our good friends at Brew Coffee and Beer on June 7th from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Learners, entrepreneurs, workers, retirees, techno-dabblers, Pokemon gatherers — whatever your stripe, all are welcome!
Discover the talents and potential of our growing North Bay queer community, and grab a cold drink or coffee with other LGBTQIA+ folks who geek out with all things tech! Network, connect, make new friends, and learn more about Out In Tech and its 50K+ global members.
Many thanks to our friendly hosts from Brew Coffee and Beer House in Santa Rosa — an energetic, inviting, and safe space where you’ll feel accepted and appreciated for who you are.
Come be a part of something new and exciting in the North Bay! Let’s connect, share, and learn together. See you there!
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COVID-19 Notice: This event will be mostly indoors. We are operating under good faith that attendees are vaccinated & have tested negative for COVID-19 on the day of the event. If you have tested positive for COVID-19, we ask that you please not attend the event for the sake of all other attendees.
The Human Rights Campaign announced Monday the launch of a $15 million public education and engagement drive to mobilize a record-high 75 million identified “equality voters” ahead of the November elections.
The mobilization, titled “We Show Up: Equality Wins,” hopes to combat anti-trans attacks and secure significant electoral victories among Democrats, including the re-election of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. HRC plans to reach voters through field programs, events, and advertising buys in six key battleground states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Nevada.
According to HRC, the number of identified equality voters has grown from 62 million in 2022 to 75 million this year. Equality voters are described as a geographically diverse, multiracial, and multigenerational coalition united by advancing LGBTQ+ equality.
“Make no mistake – LGBTQ+ voters and our allies are going to make the difference in the 2024 elections. With everything at stake, we have no other choice,” HRC president Kelley Robinson said in a press release. “Trump and his MAGA allies are promising a hate-filled agenda that hurts everyone who doesn’t look and live like them. They think they can bully and scare us and take away our fundamental freedoms. But the LGBTQ+ community has won these hard fights before – and we refuse to go back.”
According to HRC, the organization will also focus efforts in California, Texas, New York, and Delaware to support LGBTQ+ congressional candidates. The organization says that HRC has had year-round staff in these states since 2017 and will bring on additional staff to organize for the upcoming election.
A recent survey by opinion research firm GQR found that 80 percent of equality voters are highly motivated to vote, driven more by issues and causes than partisan politics. The survey also found that 22 percent of equality voters would consider voting for a third-party candidate if the election were held today. However, according to HRC, these voters are unlikely to support former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, with half indicating they would support Biden if they understood their vote could help elect Trump.
“This is a big deal,” Robinson told Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday morning. “There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot happening in the world, but this is something that people can be excited about.”
The State Department has issued a global security alert warning Americans abroad that terrorists could target lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people and LGBTQ-related events during Pride Month in June.
“Due to the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises United States citizens overseas to exercise increased caution,” the warning, issued on Friday, reads. “The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events and advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution.”
Officials advised Americans abroad to stay alert in tourism districts, at Pride events and in venues frequented by LGBTQ people. They added that before traveling overseas, Americans should enroll in the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive alerts from the department and to make it easier for officials to locate Americans in emergency scenarios.
Authorities did not specify if there are any countries or regions of the world that are of particular concern. They also did not name any foreign terrorist organizations suspected of potentially planning attacks.
A spokesperson for the State Department said in a statement Monday that the department is committed “to provide U.S. citizens with clear, timely, and reliable information about every country in the world so they can make informed travel decisions” but did not specify if the officials know where the potential threat is more pronounced.
The State Department issued a similar warning in October about extremist attacks against Americans overseas, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. That alert did not mention potential threats against LGBTQ people or events specifically. In Monday’s statement, the spokesperson said the department issued Friday’s alert “in anticipation of the many Pride celebrations held every year in June.”
Neela Ghosal, the senior director of law, policy and research at the LGBTQ human rights group Outright International, criticized the State Department for not providing further information.
“I understand that the State Department feels that they do have an obligation to let people know about these types of threats, and I think it’s important to take that seriously,” she said. “But without a level of specificity, it just creates a bit of stress and panic without anybody having valuable information on how they might change their behavior to avoid a risk.”
Ghosal added that terrorism is one of several ways LGBTQ people are targeted when they organize publicly. Research from an upcoming Outright International report shows that Pride events were attacked by far-right actors or were circumvented by governments in Turkey, Georgia and Mongolia last year.
“Given the state of the world right now, LGBTQ activists everywhere, unfortunately, know that we are potential targets,” she said. “And so in some ways, this was just a reflection of one of the many ways in which we are targets, whether it’s from terrorism or from hostile governments or from ordinary members of the public.”
The State Department’s warning Friday follows a similar alert issued jointly by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security this month regarding threats of terrorist attacks at upcoming Pride events in the U.S. The agencies similarly did not name any cities, states or venues suspected of potential threats.
The FBI and DHS did, however, cite anti-LGBTQ messaging from the Islamic State terror group and an attempted knife attack by three alleged ISIS sympathizers in Vienna last year as reasons for concern. The federal agencies also mentioned an increase in potential violence due to the eighth anniversary next month of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. The 2016 massacre left 49 people dead and 53 wounded.
The LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD recorded at least 145 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault directed at LGBTQ people and events during Pride Month in the U.S. last year.
An attacker targeted at least four LGBTQ+ bars with a pellet gun over the weekend, sparking fear and outrage among the San Diego community.
The assailant fired the pellet gun from a vehicle around 1 a.m. Saturday morning, San Diego Police told CBS 8, targeting four queer establishments in the southern California city: Rich’s, The Rail, #1 on Fifth Avenue, and PECS.
A security guard at The Rail, Donny Hurry, told the outlet that he was outside when someone began shooting from their vehicle. He realized the weapon was not a real gun after he was hit in the arms and back several times, and he then tried to run towards the car to get a description of the attacker before they drove off.
Eddie Reynoso, a host at Rich’s, said that he was standing outside when the suspect began yelling slurs from the what appeared to be an SUV and firing what he believed was an AK-47 or alike automatic weapon. Reynoso ducked immediately, but still got “hit directly in the eye.”
“I feel something kinda like explode almost like something popped. And by then I was already falling to the ground,” he said. “In my mind, I thought I just got shot through the eye and my eye just flew out.”
Reynoso said that Rich’s has been the target of several anti-LGBTQ+ incidents before, and he suspects the threats will continue.
Law enforcement has not released an official suspect or vehicle description, nor have they said if the attacks are being investigated as anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes. Police also said they are not yet certain whether the non-lethal rounds used to target the establishments and their patrons were bearing balls or paintballs.
Izan Corso, a patron who was at The Rail when the attack occurred, added: “This is obviously a safe space. So the fact that people can just come in from outside and sort of make it feel unsafe is just unfortunate.”
On May 17, the National Park Service officially determined that park rangers and other employees cannot attend Pride festivities and parades in uniform. This decision reverses a long history of allowing such participation and even having official delegation in Pride parades across the United States. Anonymous LGBTQ+ employees report feeling betrayed and note that official Pride participation in major cities is uncertain as multiple parades finalize and applications to participate in parades remain unprocessed. The move comes amid increasing crackdowns on Pride flags and LGBTQ+ people nationwide. In most cases, Republican legislators and appointees have been behind such bans, but this time, it appears the National Park Service, led by a Biden-approved director, is restricting park participation in LGBTQ+ celebrations.
The decision was first disclosed in a memo to NPS employees that did not directly address Pride but stated that “requests from employees asking to participate in uniform in a variety of events and activities, including events not organized by the NPS” conflict with National Park policy. The specific provision cited states that NPS employees cannot wear the uniform to events that would construe support for “a particular issue, position, or political party.” Applying this provision to bar Pride participation drew ire from LGBTQ+ employees who assert that LGBTQ+ Pride is not about an “issue, position, or political party,” but about identity and diversity. Employees also pointed out that the internal ERG guide allowed for participation in Pride events and that park employees had participated in Pride events with approval for years under the current set of rules.
The future of Pride parade participation with in-uniform NPS employees is uncertain. While it appears that there will be some Pride events in certain National Parks, such as Stonewall, external participation in major city Pride events seems to be on hold in at least some major American cities. The prospect of individual or small LGBTQ+-affiliated Park Ranger celebrations in city Pride events appears even dimmer, with little hope of being allowed to participate.
You can see the full response to the request for comment from an NPS spokesperson here:
The NPS uniform policy has not changed. There are no restrictions on wearing of uniforms in NPS-organized in-park events. There has been no directive to cancel NPS-organized in-park events. Superintendents have discretion to approve park-organized events, which support park purpose and mission, and departmental mission, initiatives, and priorities (e.g., diversity, inclusion, climate change, and Tribal engagement). This would include many of the events planned to celebrate Pride month. Official NPS participation in community events that directly relate to a park’s mission can be approved by the park superintendent, provided it is consistent with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and NPS policies. Last week, the Service sent out a reminder about the uniform policy – specifically because there has been an in-flux of requests from folks asking to wear their uniforms for non-Park Service events. These requests run the gamut of topics, but could include weekend, off duty events that folks are of course able to do in their personal capacity, but not while wearing a uniform representing the federal government. Previous interpretations of the uniform policy were inconsistent and as you can imagine, approving participation in some events and not others could be seen as discrimination based on viewpoint. NPS employees represent a diversity of identities, cultures, and experiences, and we are committed to supporting all of our workforce. Like any large organization, we have a diverse workforce supporting myriad causes, and we welcome employees to express their personal support for various issues, positions, and political parties, provided they do not imply their presence or endorsement constitutes official NPS support for the same. And, also like other large organizations, there are limits to what employees can do while on-duty and in uniform and seen as communicating on behalf of the NPS.
A Southern California school district reached an agreement to settle a 2023 lawsuit from a former teacher who refused to adhere to the district’s gender identity-related policies.
The settlement amounts to $360,000, with the Jurupa Unified School District agreeing to pay $285,000 to Jessica Tapia and $75,000 for her attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit alleged discrimination on the basis of religion following Tapia’s termination from the school district for being unwilling to comply with several directives regarding transgender students.
The directives included referring to students by their preferred pronouns, allowing students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and refraining from expressing religious beliefs with students or on social media.
The Jurupa Unified School District said in a statement that the decision to settle the case was made “in the best interest of the students,” so the district “can continue to dedicate all of its resources and efforts to educate and support its student population regardless of their protected class.”
The settlement agreement was finalized Tuesday. The district added that it “continues to deny any illegal action or discrimination against Ms. Tapia” and “has not admitted any fault or wrongdoing.”
Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a nonprofit law firm focused on “protecting constitutional and religious liberty in the courts,” filed the lawsuit on Tapia’s behalf in May 2023. The firm alleged Tapia was wrongfully terminated for her religious beliefs.
“People of faith should be allowed to maintain their personal beliefs without fear of losing their job,” Mariah Gondeiro, vice president and legal counsel for the group, said in a statement last year. “Jessica Tapia was not dismissed for any wrongdoing, rather, she was dismissed for her Christian beliefs. This is a clear violation of our Constitutional rights.”
As some teachers have pushed back on trans-inclusive school policies in recent years, LGBTQ advocates point to a growing body of research that has connected supportive school environments to better mental health outcomes for queer and trans students.
For example, a 2018 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Healthfound that trans youth who could use accurate names and pronouns experienced 71% fewer symptoms of depression, a 34% drop in suicidal thoughts and a 65% decrease in suicide attempts. Another 2019 study from the Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult in their life were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year.
Julianne Fleischer, legal counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, said the settlement “serves as a reminder that religious freedom is protected, no matter your career.”
As part of the settlement, Tapia is unable to seek re-employment in the district.
“What happened to me can happen to anybody, and I want the next teacher to know that it is worth it to take a stand for what is right,” Tapia said in a statement shared by Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
The complaint stated that Tapia was a member of the school community for more than two decades. She was a student at Jurupa Valley High School, and then went on to become a physical education teacher within the district.
During a meeting with district representatives in September 2022, Tapia received a notice of unprofessional conduct that issued 12 allegations against her, including “expressing controversial opinions on issues pertaining to gender identity” and “posting offensive content on her public Instagram account,” according to the complaint.
Tapia said her faith “precludes her from endorsing policies that cause her to reject her faith, such as facilitating a student’s gender transition or withholding information about it from the student’s parents,” the complaint said.
The complaint also stated that Tapia regularly posted about her religious beliefs and cultural issues on personal social media pages but did not identify herself as a teacher or an employee of the district.
At the end of the 2021-22 academic year, Tapia was placed on administrative leave. She then took a medical leave of absence following the meeting with district representatives because the directives pertaining to gender identity caused her “to suffer severe mental and emotional anguish.”
She was fired in January 2023.
“Because Ms. Tapia was unable to comply with the directives due to her religious beliefs, she requested an accommodation from the District. JUSD refused to provide her with any accommodation and subsequently terminated her employment with the District,” the complaint stated.
GLAAD has released its 2024 Social Media Safety Index report, revealing what it says are significant failures by social media platforms to protect LGBTQ+ users from hate speech and harassment. According to the report, most major platforms continue receiving failing grades for handling LGBTQ+ safety. TikTok was the only platform to improve, moving from an F to a D+.
The report paints a grim picture of the online landscape for LGBTQ+ people in an environment rife with disinformation. The 2024 SMSI report evaluates the performance of six major platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and Threads. TikTok received a D+ with a score of 67 percent, while Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube each scored 58 percent, and X scored 41 percent. Threads, in its first evaluation, scored 51 percent. Despite these platforms’ stated policies against hate speech, the report finds a significant gap in enforcement, leaving LGBTQ+ users vulnerable to harmful content.
The SMSI highlights how social media platforms are increasingly being used to amplify hate speech and disinformation, with algorithms often prioritizing engaging content over accurate and safe information. According to GLAAD, this creates a breeding ground for harmful rhetoric, which can escalate into real-world violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
Some of these actions, according to experts, can be categorized as stochastic terrorism, which refers to violent acts performed in response to messages intended to inspire such actions.
The report cites over 700 incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism documented between November 2022 and November 2023, including homicides, assaults, bomb threats, and acts of vandalism. These incidents are linked to the pervasive spread of harmful narratives and disinformation online, according to the report.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis emphasized the urgency of the situation, calling on social media companies to take immediate action to enhance the safety of their platforms.
“Leaders of social media companies are failing at their responsibility to make safe products. When it comes to anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation, the industry is dangerously lacking on enforcement of current policies,” Ellis said in a press release. “There is a direct relationship between online harms and the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ legislative attacks, rising rates of real-world anti-LGBTQ violence and threats of violence, that social media platforms are responsible for and should act with urgency to address.”
A December 2022 study by Media Matters and GLAAD revealed a significant surge in the use of the slur “groomer” on Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform. This term, falsely linking LGBTQ+ individuals to pedophilia, was used by prominent far-right influencers to incite hostility and provoke harassment against the LGBTQ community. The study found that retweets of “groomer” slur tweets by nine prominent anti-LGBTQ+ accounts increased by 1,200 percent after Musk’s takeover. Mentions of this slur from right-wing media accounts rose by over 1,100 percent. Anti-LGBTQ+ extremist influencer Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok account saw mentions grow from about 2,000 to almost 14,000. Additionally, tweets mentioning prominent LGBTQ+ accounts with the “groomer” slur increased by more than 225,000 percent.
It’s not all bad news, though. Since the first SMSI was released in 2021, GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Program has advocated for platforms to update their policies to include additional protections for LGBTQ+ safety. In 2022, GLAAD and UltraViolet worked with TikTok to have the platform add protections against targeted misgendering and deadnaming, as well as banning the promotion of the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy. GLAAD notes that the Social Media Safety Program staff have worked extensively with many platforms, apps, and companies over the past year on these critical policy areas. Companies recently adopting one or both policies include Snapchat, Discord, Post, Spoutible, Grindr, IFTAS, and Mastodon.
GLAAD’s report also explains that the lack of effective moderation and enforcement of community guidelines allows harmful content to proliferate. So, despite policies against hate speech, platforms often fail to implement these policies adequately, spreading harmful content. The report emphasizes the need for social media companies to enforce their own policies more rigorously and transparently.
Additionally, financial incentives drive the spread of hate speech and disinformation, with social media platforms profiting from increased engagement regardless of the content’s nature, according to the report. GLAAD slams this business model for prioritizing sensational and divisive posts over accurate and respectful discourse, undermining the safety of LGBTQ+ users, and threatening the integrity of democratic processes by allowing misinformation to influence public opinion and political outcomes.
Jenni Olson, GLAAD’s senior director of social media safety, stressed the broader implications of moderation failures, pointing out Meta specifically.
“In addition to these egregious levels of inadequately moderated anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation, we also see a corollary problem of over-moderation of legitimate LGBTQ expression — including wrongful takedowns of LGBTQ accounts and creators, shadowbanning, and similar suppression of LGBTQ content,” said Olson. “Meta’s recent policy change limiting algorithmic eligibility of so-called ‘political content,’ which the company partly defines as: ‘social topics that affect a group of people [or] society large’ is especially concerning.”
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint public service announcement last week warning that foreign terrorist organizations, or FTOs, could target events during LGBTQ Pride Month.
“Foreign terrorist organizations or supporters may seek to exploit increased gatherings associated with the upcoming June 2024 Pride Month,” the announcement reads. “FTO efforts to commit or inspire violence against holiday celebrations, including Pride celebrations or LGBTQIA+-related venues, are compounded by the current heightened threat environment in the United States and other western countries.”
Officials cited “ISIS messaging” focused on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and the arrests of three alleged ISIS sympathizers in an attempted knife attack at a Pride parade in Vienna, Austria, last year as reasons for concern.
They also referred to the upcoming eighth anniversary of the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, which left 49 people dead and 53 wounded.
Officials did not name any foreign terrorist organization other than ISIS. They also did not cite a specific city or particular Pride event that was of heightened concern as a potential target.
Pride groups and local law enforcement agencies that organize and protect events in some of the nation’s largest cities sought to reassure attendees.
“We can’t run and hide, and we can’t stop living our lives because hatemongers want us to,” NYC Pride’s executive director, Sandra Perez, told NBC New York. “We will do what we always do, which is work with law enforcement and our private security to make sure this is as safe as possible.”
A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said in an email to NBC News on Wednesday that the department “remains ever-ready and ever-vigilant” in protecting New Yorkers this Pride Month.
“The New York Police Department provides a significant and complex counterterrorism overlay to the events and celebrations around Pride month each June in New York City,” the spokesperson said. “The department’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau also closely monitors all relevant streams of intelligence, in real time, as they relate to foreign terrorist groups or domestic violent extremists.”
A spokesperson for San Francisco Pride said in a statement to NBC Bay Area on Wednesday that the group takes all potential threats “seriously” and is working closely with law enforcement.
“As in previous years, we will monitor any potential risks and plan accordingly to ensure a secure and enjoyable experience for everyone who joins us to celebrate Pride,” the spokesperson added.
Brandon Wolf, a Pulse nightclub shooting survivor who is now a spokesperson for the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign, said in a text message on Wednesday that “Pride is a defiant demand for a world where everyone is free to be themselves without fear of hate and violence.”
“This alert, on the eve of 8 years since Pulse, is a good reminder to stay vigilant,” Wolf said. “But the greatest antidotes to the threat of hate are living out loud, celebrating Pride defiantly, loving without apology, and waving our flags higher than ever before.”
Last year, a Kansas man was arrested on charges of threatening to bomb and “commit a mass shooting” at an LGBTQ Pride event in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2022, police arrested 31 people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front for suspicion of rioting at a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. And in 2021, authorities arrested a Long Island man who they said threatened to attackNew York City’s Pride march with “firepower” that would “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk.”
A police investigation into Republican operative Ali Alexander is still ongoing, a spokesperson for the Johnstown Police Department in Colorado confirmed to the Daily Dot on Wednesday, and has now extended to Texas. The Daily Dot reported in April of last year that a case had been opened into allegations that Alexander used promises of advancement in the conservative movement to try and groom underage boys.
Alexander is also accused of offering jobs to the boys, who were in the orbit of Nick Fuentes’ fascist America First movement, in exchange for send him sexual images and videos. The Daily Dot reported last week that a video of Fuentes admitting that he knew about the grooming allegations swirling around Alexander long before they went public had resurfaced on X after Fuentes had his account reinstated.
Alexander last appeared here in September 2023 when he declared that American Jews are “inherently foreign.”
Alexander, whose real name is Ali Akbar, has claimed that videos showing him at the Capitol on January 6th are “deep fakes.”
He appeared here in November 2022 when he claimed that he has the ability to time-travel and could will Kari Lake into office with the power of his mind.
In October 2022, he called for a “violent Christian crusade” against “sexual perversion,” which presumably would include soliciting dick pics from underage boys.
Ella Anthony knew it was time to leave her native Nigeria when she escaped an abusive, forced marriage only to face angry relatives who threatened to turn her in to police because she was gay.
Since Nigeria criminalizes same-sex relationships, Anthony fled a possible prison term and headed with her partner to Libya in 2014 and then Italy, where they both won asylum. Their claim? That they had a well-founded fear of anti-LGBTQ persecution back home.
While many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive in Italy from Africa and the Mideast are escaping war, conflict and poverty, an increasing number are fleeing possible prison terms and death sentences in their home countries because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, advocates say.
And despite huge obstacles to win asylum on LGBTQ grounds, Anthony and her partner, Doris Ezuruike Chinonso. are proof that it can be done, even if the challenges remain significant for so-called “rainbow refugees” like them.
“Certainly life here in Italy isn’t 100% what we want. But let’s say it’s 80% better than in my country,” Chinonso, 34, said with Anthony by her side at their home in Rieti, north of Rome. In Nigeria, “if you’re lucky you end up prison. If you’re not lucky, they kill you,” she said.
“Here you can live as you like,” she said.
Anthony and Chinonso have coffee at their house in Italy.Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Most European countries don’t keep statistics on the number of migrants who claim anti-LGBTQ persecution as a reason for seeking refugee protection under international law. But non-governmental organizations that track the phenomenon say the numbers are rising as countries pass or toughen anti-homosexuality laws — a trend being highlighted on Friday’s observance of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
To date, more than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ laws on the books, most of them in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.
“The ultimate result is people trying to flee these countries to find safe haven elsewhere,” said Kimahli Powell, chief executive of Rainbow Railroad, which provides financial, legal and logistical support to LGBTQ+ people needing asylum assistance.
In an interview, Powell said his organization had received about 15,000 requests for assistance last year, up from some 9,500 the year before. One-tenth of those 2023 requests, or about 1,500, came from Uganda, which passed an anti-homosexuality law that year that allows the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” and up to 14 years in prison for “attempted aggravated homosexuality.”
Nigeria also criminalizes consensual same-sex relations between adults and the public display of affection between same-sex couples, as well as restricting the work of groups that advocate for gay people and their rights, according to Human Rights Watch. In regions of Nigeria where Sharia law is in force, LGBTQ+ people can face up to 14 years in prison or the death penalty.
Anthony, 37, said it was precisely the threat of prison that compelled her to leave. She said her family had sold her into marriage, but that she left the relationship because her husband repeatedly abused her. When she returned home, her brother and uncles threatened to turn her into police because she was gay. The fear and alienation drove her first to attempt suicide, and then take up a trafficker’s offer to pay for passage to Europe.
Anthony and Chinonso show photos of themselves together. Alessandra Tarantino / AP
“At a certain point, I couldn’t take all these sufferings,” Anthony said through tears. “When this man told me that I should abandon the village, I immediately accepted.”
After arriving in Libya, Anthony and Chinonso paid traffickers for the risky boat trip across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where they both claimed asylum as a member of a group — LGBTQ+ people — who faced persecution in Nigeria. According to refugee norms, applicants for asylum can be granted international protection based on being a “member of a particular social group.”
But the process is by no means easy, straightforward or guaranteed. Privacy concerns limit the types of questions about sexual orientation that migrants can be asked during the asylum interview process. Social taboos and a reluctance to openly identify as gay or transgender mean some migrants might not volunteer the information immediately. Ignorance on the part of asylum interviewers about anti-gay laws in countries of origin can result in unsuccessful claims, according to the EU Agency for Asylum, which helps EU countries implement asylum norms.
As a result, no comprehensive data exists about how many migrants seek or win asylum in the EU on LGBTQ+ grounds. Based on estimates reported by NGOs working with would-be refugees, the numbers in individual EU countries ranged from two to three in Poland in 2016 to 500 in Finland from 2015-2017 and 80 in Italy from 2012-2017, according to a 2017 report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
An EU directive grants special protection for people made vulnerable due to sexual discrimination, prescribing “special procedural guarantees” in countries that receive them. However, it doesn’t specify what those guarantees involve and implementation is uneven. As a result, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers don’t always find protected environments once in the EU.
“We’re talking about people who are unfortunately victims of a double stigma: being a migrant, and being members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” said lawyer Marina De Stradis.
Even within Italy, the options vary widely from region to region, with the better-funded north offering more services than the less-developed south. In the capital Rome, there are only 10 beds specifically designated for LGBTQ+ migrants, said Antonella Ugirashebuja, an activist with the Arcigay association.
She said the lack of special protections often impacts female migrants more negatively than male, and can be especially dangerous for lesbians.
“Lesbians leaving Africa often, or more frequently, end up in prostitution and sexual exploitation networks because they lack (economic) support from their families,” she said. “The family considers them people to be pushed away, to be rejected … Especially in countries where this is punishable by law.”
Anthony and Chinonso consider themselves lucky: They live in a neat flat in Rieti with their dog Paddy, and dream of starting a family even if Italy doesn’t allow gay marriage.
Chinonso, who was studying medicine in Nigeria, is now a social and health worker. Anthony works at the deli counter in a Carrefour supermarket in Rome. She would have liked to have been able to continue working as a film editor, but is happy.
