Life Through a Queer Lens
Welcome to the Life Through a Queer Lens Podcast, where anyone with an open mind and heart can learn about the LGBTQIA+ Community from the people within it! We're your hosts, Jenene (she/her, they/them) and Kit (they/them).
Life Through a Queer Lens
EP63: Navigating Queer Immigration, Finding Safe Harbors, & International Refugee Rights
Explore the journey of immigration through a queer lens, highlighting the challenges LGBTQIA+ individuals face when seeking refuge in a divided world. We'll compare Uruguay and Paraguay, showcasing Uruguay's progressive laws and firm stance against dictatorship as a beacon of hope. From the Equality Index to practical advice on legal protections and societal views, this episode offers essential insights for navigating relocation. With historical reflections and a call for empathy, we aim to inspire understanding and action in support of global LGBTQIA+ rights.
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Seeking Asylum. Seeking asylum of the, over 900 sent back to europe, 254 were later killed by the nazis, and they all could have been saved if we had just let them in and opened our doors. Seeking asylum is a extraordinarily important international human right that every single living being has the right to period. Hello everybody, and welcome back to another solo episode of Life Through a Queer Lens. Today we are going to be discussing some of just an overview, basically, of the process and some countries in which you can immigrate if you are looking to leave the country in the aftermath of this election. Now, I do think it's important to touch on the fact that being able to willingly leave the country and immigrate as things start getting scary is, in and of itself, a privilege. It is To have the money, to have the resources, to have the ability to uproot your life and go for the sake of your safety is a privilege. It sucks to have to do, but the ability to do it before things get scary is a privilege and that is important to recognize as we step into this conversation. I personally also have people in my life who are considering leaving the country in the aftermath and I completely and totally understand where everyone who is having this thought is coming from. I personally plan on staying basically up until the point of if it were to become physically unsafe for me to stay by that point, though it might be too late to leave, for me to stay by that point, though it might be too late to leave, but I personally have already made that decision with myself. But for anyone of our listeners who are considering that avenue, this is a little start resource for you. Mind you, this is not going to have nearly all the information you need, not even a fraction of it, in fact. However, this is just going to be like a little launching off point for you. If you're standing there looking at a blank Google screen, being like where do I even begin? This is a little hey, maybe here is where you begin, but also you don't have to, but also you get it. So, according to International Living, the two countries they would recommend as the quickest to immigrate to if you want to, or need to, flee America are Uruguay and Paraguay.
Speaker 1:So first we're going to touch on Uruguay, especially since that is the safest of the two for, specifically, lgbtqia plus people looking to flee America, plus people looking to flee America. Uruguay legalized same-sex marriage in the 1930s, being the 14th country to do so, and is considered one of the most progressive countries on a global scale. Along with that, so long as you have the proper documentation with you, which we'll go into later in the episode a little bit you can land in the airport in the capital city of Montevideo and head right to the immigration offices within the city. There you can file to receive a temporary saluta, or national identity card, the day you arrive. It will cost a grand for this application process and allows you to remain in the country while your immigration application is processed. If you have the money to fly there and you have that extra grand, you could start your immigration process to Uruguay the very day you arrive in the capital city, which is vital for people who are looking to flee for safety reasons, especially since you can remain in the country throughout your application process for your official immigration status. Their immigration process also takes a fraction of the time, as it does with other countries, and even with a temporary saluda, you can buy or rent a home, apply for a driver's license, get health care and open a bank account, so you can still function within society in basically the same way as a naturalized born citizen or a immigrated citizen. With this temporary saluta, you can buy, rent a home, you can get a job, you can do what you need to do to survive. The banks within the country have stronger regulations preventing the bailouts that have been crippling the US economy, and the citizens have personal freedoms such as abortion access, legalized recreational marijuana use for legal residents and deeply anti-dictatorship societal standings due to having lived under a dictatorship in the 70s and 80s. So the moment the citizens catch whiff of a dictatorship, they are hitting the streets, which is important. And again, when it comes to queer rights, uruguay is close to the top of the list, and we will go into that more later.
Speaker 1:Paraguay has similar processes to immigration, allowing for a speedy entry and the ability to remain within the country while your application is processed. However, they are considered conservative when it comes to LGBTQIA plus rights and protections. Homosexuality is legal. However, same-sex marriage is still banned. There is no anti-discrimination protections in place for LGBTQ plus people for employment and housing, and adoption for queer couples is illegal. Along with that, the age of consent is different for those within the queer community versus straight couplings. For straight people, the age of consent is 14 years old. For LGBTQIA plus people and acts, the age is 16.
Speaker 1:Many videos and articles discussing these countries as options to move to describe both as being progressive and the same on LGBTQIA plus rights. However, there is a very distinct difference between the two and it is important to keep that in mind. Even International Living, describing these both as the quickest options, also described them both with similar levels of safety for queer people, and that's just not true. You do not have the same right. It is important for you to understand that before looking into your options.
Speaker 1:So, according to the Equality Index known as Equaldex, these are the top 10 most LGBTQIA friendly countries on the globe. This includes their ranking, their equality index, or average, their legal index, or measure of their legal protections, and their public opinion index. Okay, so I'm going to go through the top 10 with y'all. It's going to be a little listy, but this is important. So, number one on the equal indexes website we have Iceland. Iceland's equality index is 93, their legal index is 95, and their public opinion index is 90.
Speaker 1:Next up, we have Norway. Their equality index is 87. Their legal index is 87. And their public equality index is also 87. They got 87s across the board. Third, we have Spain. Their equality index is 83. Their legal index is 100. And their public opinion index is 67.
Speaker 1:Four we have Uruguay. Their equality index is an average of 83. Their legal index is 93. And their public opinion index is 73. That is public opinion index and that is the index of the citizens of the country and their feelings about queer rights and queer people Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, five we have Germany. Their equality index is an 81. Their legal index is 100 and their public opinion index is 62. On number six, we have Chile. Their equality index is 81. Their legal index is 100 and their public opinion index is 61. Seven we have Denmark. Their equality index is 81. Their legal index is 93. And their public opinion index is 67. Number eight we have Andorra. Their equality index is 80. Their legal index is 86. And their public opinion index is 74. Nine we have Canada, our neighbors to the north. Their equality index is 79, their legal index is 95,. Their public opinion index is 63. And last but not least, the Netherlands, at number 10. Their equality index is 78, their legal index is 90, and their public opinion index is 66.
Speaker 1:Now you might be asking yourself where are we on that list, and by we America, as I am an American citizen personally. So where does America fall on that list? We fall at number 26 on the ranking, with an equality index of 71, a legal index of 86, and a public opinion index of 56. And a public opinion index of 56. I think that gives a good understanding for queer people in America looking to leave how people feel about how you're treated, how you're protected here, versus, say, number two on the list, norway, or even number four on the list, uruguay, when we fall at number 26. You know what I mean. That might give you an idea of some of the differences you might see.
Speaker 1:I heavily recommend going to the Equality Index's website and looking into the different countries they have there and, specifically, if you click on the country on that list, it will show you the details of what is legally protected, what isn't legally protected, what is allowed, what isn't allowed. All the details will be on there. Another thing I recommend you all do is go to the Southern Poverty Law Center website and go look up your state, where you are located right now, and see how many hate groups are located in your state and, by proxy, in your area, if you scroll down on the website, it'll show you which hate groups are there and where they're located in the state and if they're statewide. My mom and I did this yesterday and found out that Moms for Liberty is active in our county. We had no idea. It's important to know, so go to Southern Poverty Law Center and look into that and make sure you understand what is active in your area that you need to be working against Moving on.
Speaker 1:Each country will have a different immigration process and different charges and hoops to jump through, so keep that in mind. Your first step will want to be making a list of countries that you think would be a good option for you and your family's needs and wants. Look into housing costs, the languages spoken, schooling information If you have children of school age or you yourself are looking for higher education, societal and legal views and protection for marginalized people's rights If you have a disability, make sure the countries you're looking into don't bar people with certain diagnosed disabilities, such as autism, from obtaining citizenship and so on. Do your research, pile a list of countries, research them, research the fuck out of them. Once you have your list narrowed down to two or three at most, like really try not to go over three, because this next step is just going to become over. The next few steps will become overwhelming if you have too many options, if you haven't really narrowed that list down. You know what I mean. Almost just knocked over my coffee. Speaking of which, let me take a little sippy sip. Shout out to my godmother for getting me this mug for my birthday, like seven years ago I think, and it was stuffed full of dollar bills that all were marked with a letter K. Yeah, shout out to her for that. That was fun, okay.
Speaker 1:So once you have your list narrowed down to two or three countries, again, no more than three, going to become overwhelming if it is so, once you have your list narrowed down to three countries, research the immigration process for these two or three countries, right or one or whatever, however many you have in your narrowed down list. Research the immigration process for each right, which papers you will need, how much it will cost for each step of the process. Can you start the process before entering the country? Can you remain in the country through the immigration process? Do you have to remain in the country through the immigration process? How will you remain in the country through the immigration process, can you get work within the country you are immigrating to, and so on.
Speaker 1:For this, I would heavily recommend visiting the website page for these countries that you're visiting. I know it sounds dumb, but as I was doing this research, I was finding website pages, urls for different governments giving me the information of how to immigrate to that country specifically, like I got one for the UK, I got one for Canada, I got one for. So if you Google your country and you can find their specific website with their information to how to immigrate to that specific country, so that would be the best websites to get this information from, because they will literally give you a list of documents you will need, with links to those documents to download and print. It is the easiest way to get everything in one place, get it all in your hands and get it back to the people that need it for you to get out of the country as quickly as possible. So keep that in mind. Start saving money anywhere you can. I know it is easier said than done, but moving isn't cheap.
Speaker 1:The Rainbow Railroad is an active LGBTQIA plus organization helping queer people around the globe flee unsafe situations. I would recommend looking into their websites and consider volunteering or, if you can, donating, and if the situation here gets bad enough and in certain States is already bad enough I would almost guarantee you that they would open up their services to you. I was trying to look into it as best as I could, but it was struggling to figure that out. But there are organizations that work toward helping queer people flee unsafe situations and get into safe situations, and those will also be a good bet if finances are a roadblock for you. Yeah, I would recommend looking into those as well. Financial assistance organizations that's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 1:Look into applying for asylum. Seeking asylum is an internationally protected right for every single human being fleeing conflict or persecution. You cannot be turned away back to a country in which your life or rights would be placed at known risk, as is the principle of non-refoulement established at the 1951 Refugee Convention. It's part of human rights law and, again, international law, meaning it must be recognized and guaranteed by all countries If things do get really bad. And also, I'm like 90% sure this is still a thing I believe religious grounds still have to honor sanctuary Again another thing to just keep in mind. That's one of the reasons why Notre Dame is considered an extremely historically significant cathedral, outside of just the religious elements. It's because of how many people claimed sanctuary there, specifically during World War II. I'm 90% sure that's still a thing. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Down in them, spotify comments. I'm sorry, I know this isn't the place for a joke like that, but I love doing that. But yeah, and actually seriously, though, if you know about that, I will most likely end up doing my own research as soon as this episode's over. But if you know about whether or not claiming sanctuary is still a thing, please let me know, because in two minutes of trying to do this research, I'm just going to get AI responses and people that don't. So I'm going to need some time to figure that out. But let me know down in the Spotify comments it's fine, everything's fine, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:So documents you will need depend massively on the circumstances of your personal immigration story, which is why doing specific research for your situation from reputable sources is necessary, and, again, the best place to look for that is government pages for the country you plan to immigrate to. However, here is an extremely basic, very basic list of what you should probably have on hand anyway before the inauguration, and also what you will probably need if you plan on immigrating. You know what I mean. So, either way, make sure you have these documents, whether or not you plan on immigrating before January 12th. Have these documents, know where they are. But if you do plan on immigrating also, these are documents that you will most likely need. But if you do plan on immigrating also, these are documents that you will most likely need. Okay, passport Many libraries offer year-round passport services.
Speaker 1:Check yours and they might come at a discount. They might have a financial assistance program that can help you afford a passport. Look into that. But maybe get your passport. I also don't have my passport. We can be passport-getting buddies, buddies, okay, I know it's a scary process, but if I figure anything out along the way, maybe I'll post it to our socials or something. What happened to my necklace? Why does it feel like that? And it's awful, that's crunchy. My necklace is crunchy. Oh, I don't like it. Anyway, sorry, I touched something weird and then my whole brain shut off.
Speaker 1:Birth certificate. For the love of God, have your hands on your birth certificate before January 20th. Oh my God, get it. Know where it is, keep it somewhere safe. Okay If you're immigrating with family photos of you together as proof of relationship. That's very important and basically every country will ask for that. That one is less of a have before the inauguration and more of a have because you are immigrating, kind of thing. Death certificates if applicable, all of that paperwork, every major life event that gave you a piece of paper because of it, have that piece of paper before January 20th, whatever it is you're doing with your life. You know what I mean. Yeah, that's the general idea.
Speaker 1:And here, last but not least, we've made it Welcome the end of the episode. It was so nice being here with y'all. And we have our interesting fact to cap it all off. And today's interesting fact has to do with the right to seek asylum. So the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement were established at the 1951 Refugee Convention, and it has many reasons behind its establishment, most obvious of which being both world wars preceding it.
Speaker 1:However, one major event showed the need for these international laws on a massive and grave level the turning away of the ship St Louis carrying 937, mostly Jewish German refugees. The ship came all the way from Hamburg, germany, in the aftermath of the Night of Broken Glass landing in Havana, cuba. Of 937 desperate people, many of whom were children, only 28 were permitted to enter Cuba, with America and Canada turning away the rest. The ship went back to Europe with every other passenger on board, them being distributed throughout several countries, including Britain and France. Of the over 900 sent back to Europe, 254 were later killed by the Nazis, were later killed by the Nazis, and they all could have been saved if we had just let them in and opened our doors. Seeking asylum is an extraordinarily important international human right that every single living being has the right to period. But yeah, on that note, stay safe, stay queer. I love you all so much. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and so long Thank you.