Sometimes the need for something is so urgent that it has to be shouted from the rooftops. In a way, that’s what the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) was doing on the roof terrace of Deutsche Bank New York headquarters at Columbus Circle, which overlooks the green expanse of Central Park.
In addition to celebrating New York City Pride Month, the event – which took place on June 23 – recognized those who have received help over the years from ORAM, which works with persecuted members of the global LGBTQ community. This included Ugandan Madrine Nanyonjo, who was in New York for the first time after relocating to Austin, Texas.
Nanyonjo, who identifies as gender nonconforming, told Gay City News that they first worked with ORAM through vocational training at Nature Network, an organization in Nairobi, Kenya, where they had sought refuge in Uganda. The training included “videography, video editing and photography, as well as poultry farming. These are the main livelihood projects I have been involved in.
At the time, they lived in a house with 16 other LGBTQ refugees, a process they described as “a model of family therapy” because everyone acted like family to each other.
“So we had this other figure as someone you can talk to as a father, as a mother, as an aunt and therefore someone you can lean on,” Nanyonjo said. “I spent all these years going through this.”
They explained that this was part of the difficulty of living as an LGBTQ refugee — and something that many Americans might not be aware of. Although Kenya welcomes gay refugees, this does not necessarily mean that the country’s society is tolerant of LGBTQ people.
“I can say it’s really difficult,” Nanyonjo said. “Because, first of all, as a refugee, we spend a lot of time just in the process. And when you are a refugee in another country, like before being resettled here, when the country is not welcoming, you always receive attacks. Yeah, you’re still at risk of being murdered or something like an attack could happen at any time. We have lost so many people in Nairobi, Kenya.
While some people were killed, others lost their lives due to untreated health issues, Nanyonjo said.
After being introduced by Jon Tilli of Deutsche Bank’s LGBTQ affinity group, ORAM chief executive Steve Roth told the audience that the organization works “primarily in what we call transit countries” – ie when people have left their country of origin, but they have not yet reached a resettlement country. These places include Mexico, Central America and Kenya, which Roth described as “the only country in East Africa that accepts refugees on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” He also spoke of the work in Turkey and, “in Germany, the support for LGBTQ Ukrainians who fled the war”.
Importantly, Roth explained to the audience that what makes LGBTQ refugees unique is that many people who flee their country tend to do so with their whole community or with their families.
“And if you’re LGBTQ, they’re often the people you’re running from, so you don’t have those built-in support structures, which is one more reason why it’s important for us to support them,” Roth explained. . ORAM engages in livelihood programs to help these refugees become more independent, a process explained by Nanyonjo.
Roth added, “The United States still has the border closed to asylum seekers,” which started with COVID-19 under former President Donald Trump but hasn’t changed under the new administration.
Later that evening, Roth would tell Gay City News more about Ukrainian LGBTQ efforts. One of the most immediate needs, Roth said, was housing, and there were short-term solutions with Airbnb and Hilton. Currently, through their ORAM office in Berlin, they are helping 100 LGBTQ refugees, including “creating a housing collective”.
“We started renting apartments and we put Ukrainians up for rent, which allows them to register to stay in Berlin, and then they have full access to social benefits, education and work,” Roth said. .
Roth said huge numbers of LGBTQ refugees emerged as a result of the Russian invasion. With at least eight million Ukrainians displaced, Roth said “a partner organization that studied field surveys” found “about 5% of people identify as LGBTQ.” So that’s 400,000 queer people arriving in Europe. They come into places like Poland, which is notoriously homophobic.
A touch of poignant glamor was when Dominique Jacksonwho played Elektra Abundance on the prom show Laid, received the ORAM Impact award. Jackson, from Trinidad and Tobago, said that despite his current success, his life had long been a struggle.
“I am an immigrant. I’m from Trinidad and Tobago, and in my country I would see where LGBTQIA+ people were treated horribly, couldn’t find jobs, and had no place. And in this case, I felt homeless in my own homeland. And I had to leave and I sought refuge in the United States.
Jackson reminded the crowd of what she had overcome, being denigrated for many years as an immigrant, poor and transgender. She welcomed her family, various friends and her fiancé to the podium, explaining that she wouldn’t be here without all the support.
In front of a crowd of bankers and LGBTQ elite, she added, “You reward me and many of you are here, and you can have a little privilege, and each one of us who can get up in the morning and go feel comfortable enough to know we can come back to that bed at night, the rent is paid, have a little privilege, you can turn around and help.
The words of Jackson and other speakers seemed to evoke epiphanies, including for those who consider themselves allies. Among them was Latashia Aglink of the German bank’s Black Leadership Forum. Aglink told Gay City News, “Being a black woman, the wedding ring is very important.”
What struck her beyond solidarity was what she learned about LGBTQ refugees that she had never thought of before.
“When I think of refugees, I just think of a group of people fleeing conflict or war. I didn’t realize that this community, they’re running away from their families. They’re running from torture, and not necessarily, you know, the country itself, but just the people who should love them.
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