Douglas McDonald, ‘Freedom To Be: Assessing the Claims of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers’, 10 Socio-Legal Review, 2014, 35-52

Abstract

This paper assesses contemporary dilemmas in the assessment of asylum claims based upon sexual identity, including international legal challenges to previously-prevailing notions that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (“LGBTQ”) asylum seekers may escape persecution through ‘discretion’; difficulties faced in credibility assessment; and the need for greater receptivity to diversity of lived sexual identities across cultural barriers. It draws upon the author’s own experiences as researcher for an Australian law firm specialising in refugee law and advocacy.