Source: Canadian Press, The Coast
OTTAWA -- Canadian courts and immigration panels consider many refugee claims each week from gay, lesbian, or transgender applicants who say they face jail or worse if returned to their home countries. But LGBT refugee claimants often struggle to shed old-world views of their sexuality when making a claim, Canadian Press news service reports.

Some immigration advocates now advise claimants to turn to new-age technology to make their case.

Facebook, the popular online social network, is being used as a tool by some claimants to help prove their sexual orientation to immigration officials in Canada.

"Sexuality has always been very complicated and when you have to prove it as a matter of life and death you will use any resource you have available to you," says Diego Macias of Among Friends, a Toronto-based gay and lesbian refugee support group.

For gay refugees, the high level of personal disclosure required by the immigration board can be a challenge, reports Erica Butler in The Coast, a Halifax news website.

For those who have been persecuted throughout their lives because of their sexuality, it can be a monumental, even impossible, task to come face-to-face with a government officer and explain their situation honestly.

"We've had people here to make a refugee claim and the real issue is their sexual orientation, but they've had to suppress this for so long that they try and invent some other reason they feel might be more socially acceptable,' says Lauren Dale of the newly formed and volunteer-run Atlantic Refugee & Immigrant Services Society.

Since roughly 1994, Canada Immigration has allowed applications from same-sex families on "humanitarian and compassionate" grounds with ministerial approval. In 2002, the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act formally recognized common-law or conjugal relationships and specifically mentioned same-sex relationships. And then, with the 2005 federal marriage law, same-sex marriages were also recognized.

But proving a claim can be difficult, as was demonstrated last month when an judge refused to grant refugee status to a Nigerian native living in Winnipeg. An immigration tribunal had said it did not believe that the man was really gay.

The federal court judge in Winnipeg upheld the decision to ship the Nigerian man back to his native country because the Immigration and Refugee Board ruled his claim of being gay was a hoax.

He says his life is in danger if he goes home.

Experts say it can take different components to paint a convincing picture of one's sexual orientation for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

"I have used Facebook (because) people put stuff on there about themselves and who they are, and in a relationship with," says immigration lawyer El-Farouk Khaki, who specializes in representing gay and lesbian refugee claimants.

Whether you're a gay refugee seeking a safe place to be who you are, or a same-sex couple that's happy to finally find a country where gay couples have some basic civil rights, one thing's for sure: You're going to have to get personal.

Once a refugee musters the courage for a claim, proving it can also be difficult. "It depends on the country you're coming from," says refugee and immigration lawyer Lori Hill.

"Some countries still have it on the books that it's illegal to be gay," she said. "Other countries, they've maybe taken that law off the books, but you still are dealing with societal norms that have the same effect at the end of the day."

Some districts of Mexico, for example, allow for same-sex civil unions, but at the same time can be extremely dangerous for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people.

In more than 75 countries people face jail, or worse, for having gay sex. Acts of homosexuality are punishable by death in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan.

Wearing their sexuality on their sleeve was never an option for many of these people back in their home countries, so scrounging up suitable evidence to support their claims may be difficult.

Claimants cite torture, rape, and even death if they are returned home.

So they have to get inventive, and that's where social networks like Facebook come in.

A group leader for Among Friends tells his members to use technology to their advantage and feels Facebook can help demonstrate involvement in the gay and lesbian community.

"During Pride we took hundreds of pictures and we have a Facebook group and when people sign up to that group we encourage them to show their membership to the IRB member."

Khaki says he often provides his clients with a list of items that can help prove their sexual orientation to the immigration board - and there is very little off-limits.

Claimants can use letters from family and friends, pictures at Pride festivities and memberships on gay chat rooms.

Incorporating one of the most used web-based networks in the world, with 90 million members, is just the next logical step says Khaki.

"Before there was Facebook, I was using other profiles," says Khaki, giving examples of Gaydar.com and adam4adam, used often for personal ads.

Source: Facebook the new tool to help prove gay refugee claimants' sexual orientation | Canadian Press
Canada opens doors for queer immigrants | The Coast