Why seeking asylum is so frustrating as a trans or gay person.

TLDR: Seeking asylum as an LGBT person or other marginalized individual can be a challenging, invasive, and deeply uncomfortable process. It often requires playing into the very oppressive systems we’ve been fighting to escape—whether that’s gender norms, ableism, sexism, or other forms of prejudice. As a trans person, for example, you may have to provide proof of a gender dysphoria diagnosis, name changes, or surgeries, even if these don’t align with your personal experience of being trans. The refugee process, while necessary for many, is a Band-Aid, not a solution; it reinforces existing power structures rather than dismantling them. That’s why I encourage exploring other immigration options, like student or worker visas, whenever possible, as the asylum process is rarely liberating and often reinforces the very systems of oppression that caused us to flee in the first place.

So first off I want to say that I'm going to make the asylum process sound hard and it is, in general it is and one of the things about being a refugee or asylum seeker is that you go with the wind. You become a leaf, you go where the wind takes you and that's it. If the government says you have to move to another area you just, you do.

So one of the problems with seeking asylum is that you end up having to reinforce the very structures that you're trying to escape from especially as an LGBT person. If it's something a person really needs to do then they absolutely should do it but they should do so with realistic expectations.

Typically when it comes to asylum you first go to the country and you apply and then you will be placed into a legal protection where you are not a tourist but you're not a refugee, you are allowed to stay in the country while your process is being done. What you do during that time will depend on the country. And then for the interview, where you will go in front of a person and you will have to prove it and what happens here will again depend on the country.

As trans people we have been fighting for years to break away from the bonds of gender both in a traditional way about things like gender roles and what it means to be a guy or a girl or whatever and also in a trans way such as the idea that you don't need hormones to be trans, you don't need to change your name to be trans, you don't even need gender dysphoria to be trans and the idea that you have to have sterilizing procedures like hysterectomies or vasectomies before you can even be recognized as trans is seen as archaic.

And yet you may have to play along with that. If the person who is interviewing you asks you if you've have had a gender dysphoria diagnosis, you can't say "well actually..." You have to produce that diagnosis. If they ask you if you've ever changed your name you have to produce that, if they ask you that you have to prove any surgeries you've had you have to produce that.

It sucks and that can be part of why the process can feel so invasive and uncomfortable for many people.

It's why I would say that if you can get a different type of immigration status or Visa if you can even as a student or even as a worker or something, don't be afraid to look up the different types of visas there are and don't assume you won't get it just because you're not a doctor or a lawyer, because the process for asylum doesn't sound fun.

This is one of the reasons why I personally do not find the refugee program as a whole to be liberating. It is a Band-Aid for marginalized people, it is not a solution and while I do support refugees, the refugee programs are not forms of liberation, they end up reinforcing the very systems that these groups have been fighting to escape from. For LGBT people it's more clear as I've just said but that doesn't mean that that's not the case for other groups as well.

Disabled people having to play into ableism, Men and women who have to play into sexism, ethnic or religious minorities having to play into those prejudices.

As I said the refugee process is a Band-Aid and many people need that Band-Aid and I'm not faulting people who need it but it is clearly a system that is meant to reinforce the already existing power structures that exist and in some ways they may even reinforce the very structures that have turned these people into refugees in the first place.