Telling stories about LGBTIQ+ forced migration

About the lecture:
For over twenty years, sexual orientation and gender identity have been used as grounds to grant asylum in the UK. With this, a new figure has emerged in the public consciousness: the queer refugee. The way they are represented and understood in the public sphere relies mostly on telling stories about their experiences, from their journey to the UK to the claiming of asylum. In this talk, I will look at how we tell stories about the forced migration of LGBTIQ+ people: the way they are used by the state to make asylum decisions, as well as the way advocates and activists rely on them to call for a more just system. Finally, looking at art projects, I will ask: can queer refugees use storytelling as a tool for emancipation and reinvention?