The Role of Communication in the Identification of Gay Refugees and Asylees throughout Migration
by
Nathian Shae Rodriguez, M. A.
A Dissertation
In
Media & Communication
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Kenton T. Wilkinson, Ph.D. Chair of Committee
Robert M. Peaslee, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Ph.D.
Bryan McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Marilda Oviedo, Ph.D.
Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School
August, 2016
Copyright 2016, Nathian S. Rodriguez Texas Tech University, Nathian S. Rodriguez, August 2016
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to first thank my dissertation chair Dr. Kent Wilkinson. Thank you for all your help and guidance over the last three years. I’m especially grateful for your trust and faith in my teaching and research. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Rob Peaslee, Dr. Elizabeth Trejos, Dr. Marilda Oviedo, and Dr. Bryan McLaughlin. Each of you contributed to my personal and academic growth in your own unique way. Thank you for taking the time and having the patience to mentor me and lead me through my academic endeavors. You have each set a benchmark of academic excellence that I can only hope of achieving one day.
I would also like to thank the faculty in the College of Media of Communication, all of whom helped in my studies and academic development. Special shout out to Bridget for all her hard work and dedication! I would especially like to thank Dr. Zhang for his diligent and genuine efforts in helping shape the academic rigor and integrity of Ph.D. program. Your tireless efforts have not gone unnoticed. Thank you to Dr. Stoker for believing in my teaching abilities and placing me in challenging, yet rewarding teaching positions within the college. And finally, a very special thanks to Ann Rodriguez. You were the first person to truly believe in my research and encouraged me to pursue LGBTQ studies. Thank you for helping me believe in myself! I would also like to thank Dr. Joe Hodes for serving as the Graduate Dean’s representative for my dissertation defense.
This study was supported by grants from the following entities housed inside Texas Tech University’s College of Media & Communication: the Thomas Jay Harris Institute for Hispanic and International Communication (HIHIC); Office of Graduate Studies; the Regent Professors’ Graduate Student Research Small Grant; and the Billy I. Ross Fund. Thank you so much for providing the resources for my dissertation. Also, thank you to Dr. Munoz, Jobi Martinez, Dr. Frazier, the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity, & Community Engagement, and the Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center for supporting my research endeavors while at Texas Tech. ii
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The friendships I made during this demanding process also deserve special acknowledgment. Thank you to Mary Liz for being my sanity and my chaperon during my first year. You are my Yoda! Lindsey and Jenn, you two have been my support system, my muses, and my confidants throughout the program. Thank you for listening to all of my crazy research ideas, complaints, and engaging me in some of the best social justice conversations I’ve ever had in my life. Thank you to Jobi for the endless late nights, and sometimes early morning, conversations. You were one of the first administrators I met when I started the program at Tech. You were the catalyst for my research endeavors and a champion for diversity. Thank you! Katie Miller, you are extraordinary and have inspired me beyond words. Your strength and dedication to a cause greater than yourself is truly motivating. We need a million more of you!
Last, but certainly not least I would like to think my family. My mother, the doyenne, and my grandmother, my duenna, have been my motivation for finishing this program. Thank you both for always believing in me and unconditionally loving and encouraging me to pursue grander things in life. Thank you to my two brothers, nieces, nephew, Godchildren, and cousins for your unwavering support. Thanks to my compadres Ben and Samantha for putting up with one of the most difficult transitions in our lives. You are appreciated more than you realize. To my radio family I left to pursue my true calling, thank you for understanding and still sticking by me. A most humble and exalted thanks to my Lord and Savior, without whom I am nothing. I’ve been blessed more than I deserve.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii
ABSTRACT ...... viii
LIST OF TABLES ...... xi
INTRODUCTION ...... xii
I. LGBTI PERSECUTION & THE MIDDLE EASTERNER ...... 1
Western Influence ...... 2 Immigration, LGBTIs, and the U.S...... 7 II. QUEER DIASPORA AND THE MIDDLE EASTERN GAY ...... 15
Diaspora ...... 16 Queer Diaspora...... 18 III. TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ...... 22
Historical Context ...... 23 Globalization ...... 27 Western Media & the Middle East ...... 30 Digital Content ...... 33 Digital Advocacy and the Global Citizen ...... 35 Digital Advocacy and the NGO ...... 38 Media, Communication, & Identity ...... 40 IV. IDENTITY: INDIVIDUAL & SOCIAL ...... 42
Theoretical Roots ...... 43 Social Identity ...... 46 Theoretical Relevance ...... 52 V. RESEARCH QUESTIONS & METHOD ...... 54
Research Questions ...... 54 Methodology ...... 58 Etic & Emic ...... 60
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Interviews ...... 62 LGBTI Refugee/Aaylee Participants ...... 63 Procedures ...... 66 NGO Participants ...... 67 The NGOs ...... 68 Procedures ...... 70 Focused Ethnography ...... 71 Measurement ...... 74 Functional Equivalence ...... 74 Reliability and Validity ...... 76 Ethics ...... 77 Operationalization ...... 79 Identity/Identification ...... 79 Communication ...... 81 Organizational Communication ...... 82 Interpersonal Communication ...... 83 Media Use ...... 84 Analysis ...... 86 VI. SAN FRANCISCO & THE LGBT MIDDLE EASTERN ASYLEE ...... 87
A Night in the Castro ...... 96 The Eagle and the Bears ...... 105 Insider/Outsider ...... 109 VII. THE MIDDLE EAST & PRE-ASYLUM IDENTITY ...... 113
The Concept of Gay ...... 113 Same-Sex Secrets ...... 119 Categorization of “Queers” ...... 121 Legacy Media’s Reification of Homophobia ...... 125 Social Meida & the Internet ...... 128 English & Computer Literacy ...... 132 Asylum Seeking ...... 134 Pre-asylum Identity ...... 138 Chapter Concluson ...... 140 VIII. THE QUEER DIASPORA & POST-ASYLUM IDENTITY ...... 142 v
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Diasporas ...... 142 San Francisco as a Symbol ...... 146 Advocacy...... 149 NGOs & Organizations ...... 152 Legacy Media & Internet Post-Asylum ...... 154 Social Media Use Post-Asylum ...... 157 Social Meida and Family Back Home ...... 162 Mobile Apps ...... 166 Religion ...... 168 Political Rhetoric ...... 172 Post-Asylum Identity ...... 176 Chapter Concluson ...... 180 IX. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: NGO TO LGBTI ...... 183
The Organizations & Communication ...... 184 NGO Location ...... 189 Outreach ...... 192 Affect & Connection ...... 197 Formal Reports ...... 200 Language & Labels ...... 201 Training ...... 208 Regions of Focus ...... 210 Media Challenges ...... 212 Anonymity ...... 217 Chapter Conclusion ...... 218 IX. CONCLUSION ...... 220
Personal Reflexivity ...... 225 Implications ...... 227 Closing Thoughts ...... 230 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 231
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APPENDICES A. LGBTI REFUGEE/ASYLEE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 256
B. ORGANIZATIOAN/NGO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 257
C. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS EXAMPLE ...... 258
D. ATLAS.TI EXAMPLE ...... 259
E. IRB APPROVAL LETTER ...... 260
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ABSTRACT In recent years, millions of refugees have migrated across the globe fleeing persecution, in search of better lives. Among these refugees are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals who are escaping maltreatment for their sexual orientation. At the time of writing, there were 76 countries with laws imposing harsh sanctions against same sex intimacy, varying from fines, imprisonment, violence, and even death. Because of their unique situations, these refugees and asylum seekers are doubly marginalized as forced migrants and sexual minorities. This study investigates how LGBTI refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees navigate their identity through the interactions throughout the migration process. Identity is produced and reproduced through social interaction. This study’s main goal was to investigate how social interactions, embedded in the lived experiences of LGBTI refugees/asylees during their migration process, created and shaped meaning specific to their identity.
More specifically, the current study looked at social interactions using communication, mediated and interpersonal, to negotiate identity among gay Middle
Eastern refugees/asylees living in San Francisco’s queer diaspora.
In order to answer the overall research question of identity negotiation, interviews and a focused ethnography were conducted. Six self-identifying gay refugees/asylees from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, now residing in
California’s Bay Area, were interviewed. Additionally, a focused ethnography was conducted in the queer diaspora of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. The LGBTIs use of media was influenced by English and computer literacy. In a pre-asylum
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context, media were used for asylum seeking, to find information on gay culture, and to build relationships with other queers living in secret. Whereas interpersonal communication was used to find and initiate escape routes. In a post-asylum context, media were used to find other gays in the queer diaspora, however not used to build relationships. Interpersonal communication was utilized more in the queer diaspora to foster relationships, acculturate, and shape identity. Intersectionality, marginalization, and power come together to shape the identities of the gay refugees/asylees. For most of the participants, being a ‘refugee’ was substantially part of who they were. It defined their past and situated their present. For others, however, ‘refugee’ was an identity they wanted to shed. They wanted to create a new life and leave their pasts behind them. In both scenarios, being gay was still the most salient attribute of their identities. In sum, the media they consumed pre-asylum helped the refugees realize
“what they were,” while the media post-asylum helped them negotiate “who they are.”
The gay refugees/asylees interviewed communicated that little aid was received from NGOs in the migration process; however, the NGOs positioned themselves as LGBTI refuge-focused. To further understand the communication endeavors seven LGBTI refugee-focused NGO employees, each charged with communication tasks, were interviewed. Specific to identity, the niche NGOs strive to create counter-narratives that help foster positive and nurturing categorizations of
LGBTI refugees and asylees. They, and other LGBTIs in similar areas, have been socialized with pejorative categorizations of gay and LGBTI. The goal of the NGOs is to change these meanings and instigate a more positive categorization for the LGBTIs ix
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and in the process save lives. The NGOs also focused on creating a more encouraging and supportive environment for the LGBTIs in their new home post-asylum. By fostering a sense of tolerance coupled with volunteers and staff who are LGBTI- friendly, the NGO introduces a social institution where more advantageous interactions can take place. These interactions help shape and reshape meaning for the
LGBTIs, ultimately helping them create a social identity that cultivates happiness and a sense of self-worth.
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LIST OF TABLES
6.1 LGBTI Refugee/Asylee Interviewees...... 254 6.2 Organizational/NGO Interviewees ...... 255
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INTRODUCTION
PRIORITY FOR PERSECUTION: LGBTIS AND ASYLUM
Marwan grew up in rural Syria, the oldest male child in a hyper-Islamic family.
Marwan struggled with his sexuality at an early age; there was not an Arabic word or concept to describe his internalized feelings of same-sex attraction. After conducting research online, he realized he indeed was what Westerners referred to as “gay.”
Marwan came out to his family at the age of fifteen and was met with violent beatings from his father. In fact, the beatings became a common occurrence well into his early twenties. Aside from the beatings, Marwan was also subjected to religious counseling, a strict curfew, and his family restricted his phone use and time with friends. His father constantly threatened to turn him over to the Syrian secret police and Al-Qaeda.
For Marwan, it was more than just being gay – he hadn’t had any sexual interactions while in Syria – it was also about his gender expression. Marwan spoke
“like a female” and “walked like a female.” His father would beat him until he “acted like a man.” Al-Qaeda entered Marwan’s town and announced a religious cleansing of the city, specifically of sodomites. The extremist group began throwing sodomites, both actual and perceived, off rooftops. They also initiated public stonings and invited the public to participate. Marwan knew he had to flee. After speaking online with friends, he decided he would go to Lebanon and then Turkey.
In order to reach the border, in both countries, he had to hire a cab driver to lie for him. It was expensive, but he had no choice. There was no one he could trust. He
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was escaping not only from Al-Qaeda, but also from his community and family. For
Marwan, it was a matter of life and death. It was risky, but he felt the large sum of money he paid the cab driver would buy his loyalty, even if for a couple of hours. The cab driver would speak for him at checkpoints. The cab driver told military officials that Marwan was a sick mute and couldn’t respond to their questions. Marwan’s effeminate voice and mannerisms would give him away. He couldn’t risk it. After countless hours of anxiety and stress and distress, Marwan finally made it to Turkey.
He now faced a new challenge in this liminal space. He needed to find help getting asylum in a country that had not only a gay-friendly atmosphere, but also laws to protect him.
Unique challenges like Marwan’s are among the many encountered by LGBTI individuals during the refugee and asylum process. LGBTIs continue to grapple with harassment, oppression, violence, and fragmented identities. Currently, there are laws in 76 countries that impose severe punishments against same-sex intimacy (Bertrand,
2015), with sanctions including imprisonment, fines, forced psychiatric treatment, beatings, lashings, and even death (Asal & Sommer, 2016; Rodriguez, 2016). Specific sanctions are determined by local forms of legal, political, moral, and religious codes or conventions (Fortier, 2002). To date, nearly 2.79 billion people live in countries where being gay can lead to imprisonment or death (Ball, 2014). Because of their unique situations, these refugees and asylum seekers are doubly marginalized as forced migrants and sexual minorities (ORAM, 2011). Thus, special LGBTI-focused
NGOs have organized to address this population’s distinctive needs. One of the goals xiii
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of the current study is to explore how niche LGBTI refugee/asylee-focused NGOs are using mediated and non-mediated forms of communication to correspond with the
LGBTI refugee/asylee population, thus saving their lives.
Like Marwan, most LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers do not arrive in their host country of asylum with family members or friends. They are fleeing violence at the hands of relatives, community members, and/or police, so they often have no relational ties when arriving in the country of asylum. In most cases, these LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers choose to remain segregated during the migration process from those who share the same national or ethnic background. Non-LGBTI individuals flee their homeland for reasons other than sexual orientation and may harbor the same anti-gay sentiment the LGBTI refugees/asylum-seekers are fleeing
(Forced Migration Review, 2014). There is also the issue of resettlement in safe and supportive communities in order to succeed. LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers need environments with legal services, English language-learning centers, LGBTI populations, and other pro-LGBTI services (Forced Migration Review, 2014). LGBTI- focused NGOs recognize the above mentioned needs and cater their services, and training, to LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers.
As mentioned above, when refugees of any kind arrive in their homeland, they often suffer from fragmented identities caused by forced migration (ORAM, 2012).
An individual’s identity is context-specific to temporal, spatial, and cultural surroundings that are attached to social roles and positions, networks, and histories
(Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). Forced migration rips the refugees from their xiv
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homelands and hastily severs these valuable and familiar ties (Colic-Peisker &
Walker, 2003). These individuals have to navigate a new culture while trying to make sense of their identities. These identities are always in flux and are intersectional, bringing together facets of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, culture, and nationality, among others (Choo & Ferree, 2010; Dhoest, 2015; Hall, 1996; Hall &
Jagose, 2012). Intersectionality refers to the various ways in which race, gender, and other personal characteristics intersect to shape the multiple dimensions of an individual’s identity (see Crenshaw, 1991). In their host countries, these individuals may also face discrimination and stigma from others, even other LGBTIs, due to one or more facets of their identities (Manalansan, 2006).
The current study centers on media and communication, specifically the role they play on identity negotiation for the LGBTI refugee/asylee in both pre- and post- asylum environments. Identity, in the current study, is seen as a process and is used interchangeably with the term identification (Jenkins 1994, 2008). Furthermore, the current study will explore how niche LGBTI refugee/asylee-focused NGOs are using media and communication to interact with this marginalized population. While the world has become increasingly reliant on new technologies, the current study considers both mediated and interpersonal forms of communication. Employing the theoretical lens of social identity theory, I interviewed seven LGBTI refugees/asylees who have been granted asylum in the West Coast of the United States and eight
LGBTI-focused NGO employees charged with communication efforts in their
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respective organizations. I also performed a focused ethnography in San Francisco and observed a group of Middle Eastern LGBTI refugees/asylees.
Author’s Situated Position
I feel it’s important to orient the reader about myself, in order to illustrate how my situatedness informs the current study. An individual’s situatedness is influenced by all qualities and characteristics in his or her life; they can be “counted as outside forces that influence subjectivity and one’s view of subjectivity, elements of what is otherwise called determination, ideology, environment, history, discourse, and so on”
(Simpson, 2002, p. 20). Each individual is distinct, however often shares some commonalities with others.
As a critical-culturist with both professional and academic experience, I see my teaching and research located at the intersection of praxis and theory. My research is informed by my epistemology and my professional experience. I worked for a year with Univision and ten years in radio broadcasting in all capacities. I was on-air talent for three different genres of radio, programmed music for Pop, Hip-Hop, and Hot
Adult Contemporary (AC) stations, sold advertising at local and national levels, and served as operations manager for a cluster of five stations in West Texas. Although I primarily use qualitative methods of inquiry, I am well versed in quantitative methods and often employ mixed methods in my research endeavors. I typically work with textual analysis, interviews, focus groups, and surveys. I seek to better understand the phenomenology and pragmatism of under-represented populations through qualitative investigation. Specifically, I concentrate on LGBTIs and their intersection of race, xvi
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ethnicity, class, ability, disability, and sexual orientation. Also, because I take a critical position in my inquiry, I seek to not only identify and understand cultural representations in media, but also examine more closely the effects those representations (or misrepresentations) have on viewing audiences.
I identify as a gay, Latino, cisgender1 male. I grew up in San Antonio, Texas and then moved to a small town in West Texas named Balmorhea (population 763 in
1994). I am the oldest of three boys raised by a single mother in a hyper Mexican- machismo culture. I came out to my friends and family at the age of 23 and was met with mixed responses. My personal experiences as a gay Latino have shaped my cognitions on the issues of intersectionality, gender performance, and cultural context.
My upbringing, professional background, and academic training all converge in the situatedness that informs the current study.
Throughout the dissertation, my situatedness influences how I interpret the data and the respondents. I employ reflexivity as a means to position and interpret my observations and interactions in the contextual environments in which the data was collected. I have also augmented the academic and theoretical implications with the phenomenology2 of LGBTI refugees/asylees. I have included large excerpts of their lived experiences, so that they may shape the narrative and direction of the study, while I inform the academic and pragmatic implications of their words and actions.
The individuals whom I have interviewed and observed for the current study provided
1 Cisgender, or cis for short, implies an individual’s gender identity is in agreement with the gender assigned at birth. For example, I was born a male and I identify as a male. Transgender is when gender identity is not in agreement with the gender assigned at birth. 2 Lived experiences. xvii
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me with not only rich information, but also touching and emotive experiences. In short, the aspiration of these individuals, both the refugees and those whose goal it is to help them, provide the backbone of this dissertation, while my situatedness helps inform the scholastic interpretation of their lived stories.
Overview of the Dissertation
As stated above, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the role that communication, both mediated and interpersonal, plays in identity negotiation for
LGBTI refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees who have been granted asylum in the
United States of America. Specifically, I positioned the current study to explore the following: (1) if and how these refugees are using mass media, both traditional and digital media, to shape and maintain their overall post-asylum identity; (2) compare and contrast mass media and interpersonal communication in regards to identity negotiation; and (3) investigate the use of mass media and interpersonal communication in LGBTI-focused NGOs in relation to LGBTI refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees.
I should also make clear that in the current study I use the acronym “LGBTI”
(lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) whereas in queer academic literature the acronym “LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) is commonly used.
The acronym GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) is also frequently used in academic conferences. Because LGBTI is used by domestic and international NGOs, as well as supranational entities that focus on LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers, I
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employ it in the current study. LGBTI will be used as a collective term for individuals who identify along the LGBTI identity spectrum.
In the study’s findings and conclusion (Chapters Six through Ten) I use ‘gay’ over the traditional use of ‘homosexual’ in academic scholarship of Middle Eastern studies. Homosexual has a pejorative clinical history and has been used aggressively by anti-gay extremists and anti-gay politicians, such to the point that GLAAD has asked that ‘gay’ be used in instead – an exception is made for the use of homosexual in direct quotes (GLAAD, n.d.; Subtirelu, 2015). Both The Associated Press and The
New York Times restrict the usage of the term homosexual in light if its pejoriative history (GLAAD, 2013). It has also been pointed out that because the term homosexual includes ‘sexual,’ the word emphasizes sexual acts and not on gay men or lesbian women’s basic humanity (Subtirelu, 2015). Due to the association for some between the word homosexual and anti-gay politics, the fact that this dissertation is written in the spirit of advocacy and emancipation, and the interviewees’ use of the word gay, I will utilize the term gay in the findings and conclusion sections of the dissertation. I will, however, adhere to the traditional academic use of ‘homosexual’ in the literature review sections (Chapters One through Four). Terms and labels matter due to their close association with identity and perceptions, especially among minority populations.
Chapter One contextualizes the issue of persecution and the LGBTI in the
Middle East. In this global region, identifying or even being perceived as LGBTI can be a matter of life and death. Chapter Two provides information on Middle Eastern xix
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and queer diaspora. Because issues of sexual orientation and behavior are ingrained in
Middle Eastern religious and political ideologies, homophobia and violent acts often spill over into the diaspora. This creates new problems for LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers, they cannot settle with non-LGBTIs of their own culture. Instead, they gravitate toward, or create, a queer diaspora. In Chapter Three I present a historical look at transnational communication in the context of diasporic communities and how mass communication has helped shape the current landscape of LGBTI migration.
Social identity is employed as the theoretical lens from which I examine the data. This allows for a holistic understanding of the phenomenology of LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers, all of which is explicated in Chapter Four. Chapter Five introduces the research questions of the study and the academic assumptions that informed those questions. Chapter six is devoted to the methodology of the study.
Interviews and observation make up the key qualitative components. An inductive, thematic analysis informed by social identity theory and identity negotiation theory serves as the main method of analysis.
The analysis and findings of the study are outlined in chapter seven. A textual analysis was performed on the transcribed interviews and field notes. I offer evidence that highlights use of both interpersonal and mediated communication in the migration process and the negotiation of post-asylum identities. Chapter Eight provides an additional level of analysis in the form of a focused ethnography to better elucidate the role of communication in the context of the NGO. Chapter Nine offers the outcomes of the interviews with the communication personnel of LGBTI-focused NGOs. In the xx
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same manner as Chapter Seven, the use of mediated and interpersonal communication is examined. The study concludes in Chapter Ten, where I provide an overview of the research, integrate the three chapters of findings, and outline implications for both theory and praxis. The overall goal of this dissertation is to situate the reader in the plight and lived experiences of the LGBTI refugee/asylee, from exile to asylum, and how media and communication are employed as methods to help shape and reshape meaning in the identity negotiation process. The remainder of the dissertation contains frank discussions of same-sex sexual practices and expletives.
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CHAPTER I
LGBTI PERSECUTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
In May 2001, Egyptian officials raided the Queen Boat, a tourist boat anchored in the Nile Delta off the coast of Cairo, Egypt. Fifty-two gay men were detained for homosexual activity; 35 were Egyptians and 17 were foreigners (Awwad, 2010). The foreigners were released and the Egyptians were prosecuted under an emergency law aimed directly at homosexual activities. Although Egypt’s constitution guarantees civil liberties, the government “deployed a discourse of religiosity” and framed homosexuality as a threat to national security to try the accused under emergency state law (p. 322). Massad (2002) argues that while same-sex intimacy has long been present in this global region, the idea of “gay” or “homosexual” identity is a Western concept that has brought about attention, and thus harassment, to individuals practicing same-sex intimacy. There was no such idea of a gay orientation, much less an identity.
In a more recent incident of homosexual violence, members of the militant extremist group ISIS (also known as Daesh in the Middle East) threw two men off a tower as punishment for the act of “liwat” – the term used for men accused of homosexuality in the Islamic State sharia law3 (Prince, 2015). In mid-2015 the group released a video showing the men falling to their death and a crowd of spectators throwing stones at the bodies once they landed on the ground. The video was
3 Liwat “refers specifically to anal sex, but is often used by ISIS-linked Twitter accounts for any act deemed homosexual in Islamist states” (Prince, 2015, para. 2). 1
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broadcast on news outlets world-wide. A similar incident took place in the al-Furat province in Iraq a few months later, with video and pictures being released to the media (Wyke, 2016). Locals argued that ISIS did not kill the suspected homosexuals as a message to other homosexuals in the Middle East, but rather as a message to the
West (Haddad, 2016). It served as an example that the extremist group stood against everything the West believed in, including a gay/queer/homosexual identity.
There are, of course, many examples in the Middle East4 that demonstrate how
LGBTIs have been persecuted, however these two instances are frequently discussed the most. Both instances described were characterized by academics to have been instigated by a postcolonial shift away from Western, colonizing influences in the
Middle East (Awwad, 2010; Haddad, 2016). These, and many other instances of persecution in this global region, raise the question of how homosexuality is contextualized in this area of the world. This chapter is devoted to a review of academic and professional literature that highlights the Western influence on the gay
Middle Easterner, the concept of homosexuality in the Middle East, and concludes with an explication of the legal and asylum system in the United States.
Western Influence
Basic identity in the Middle East, as in other areas of the world, is not only constructed by social, economic, generational, nor gender differences. Bernard Lewis
(1998) asserts that there are three kinds of primary identity which are acquired at birth.
4 Although Egypt is situated in North Africa, many scholars and supranational bodies regard it as part of the Middle East. 2
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The first is by blood, in ascending order, “the family, the clan, the tribe, developing into the ethnic nation.” (p. 6). The second is by place and is often related or in conflict with the first primary identity of blood. Place can be a village, district, city, or nation.
The third primary identity, also linked to the first and second, is the religious community. For many, religion is the only ‘loyalty’ that extends beyond any types of localized and direct bonds.
Lewis also argues a broad category of identity exists as allegiance to a ruler which is usually acquired at birth. This allegiance may evolve through annexation, transfer of power, migration, or naturalization. Historically in the Middle East, these two identities – “the involuntary identity of birth and the compulsory identity of the state” (p. 7) – were the only two that existed. Due to modernity, a new type of identity is evolving between the two under a Western influence – a “freely chosen cohesion and loyalty of voluntary associations, combining to form what is nowadays known as the civil society” (p. 7). It is within this civil society that individuals interact to shape meaning, and thus their identities (Castells, 2010). This process of identity negotiation, which Jenkins (1994, 2008) labels as identification, is the center of the current study.
The Western influence on this modernized identity has been directly credited for fostering a homosexual or gay identity in the Middle East by some scholars (Altman,
2002; Massad, 2002).
After the independence of many Arab states during the first half of the 20th century, a new sense of Islamism and nationalism, coupled with modernity, created a new movement to combat Western influences that some Arabic states see as 3
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postcolonial, including homosexuality (Awwad, 2010). Altman (2002) claims this is not just limited to the Middle East, but includes everyone outside of Euro-American countries. The term homosexual was conceptualized by Karoly Benkert, a Hungarian psychologist, in 1869 (although the concept of same-sex intimacy had been around long before then). Some scholars claim that LGBTI persecution is due to the global discourse produced by human rights advocates; therefore making the concept of a homosexual identity a product of globalization (Altman, 2002). I agree with this view and argue that universal categories of “gay,” “lesbian,” or “homosexual” cannot be ascribed to global communities, making LGBTIs one monolithic group. Temporal, spatial, and cultural differences must be considered.
According to several scholars (Altman, 2002; Ferguson, 1990; Massad, 2002), there has been a new form of neocolonization in terms of gay and homosexual identities imposed upon the East and South. Massad (2002), specifically, argues that
NGOs and their human rights discourse for gay rights have created gays where they did not ultimately exist—in his words, the “gay international.” The gay international fosters a discourse that “both produces homosexuals, as well as gays and lesbians, where they do not exist, and represses same-sex desires and practices that refuse to be assimilated into its sexual epistemology” (p. 363). This forces many Middle Eastern individuals who engage in same-sex intimacy into coming out and identifying as gay or homosexual. It generates attention in the eyes of the state and, in Massad’s words, self-inflicted persecution.
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In much Middle Eastern discourse, homosexual intimacy is reduced to an act, rather than an orientation or identity. Placing an emphasis on LGBTI as a category of sexual orientation and an identity creates a paradox for NGOs and LGBTI advocates.
In order to help the LGBTIs they must fight for equality as a sexual orientation; doing so, however, places them in the spotlight and could bring about violence on the
LGBTIs. In order to combat this highly publicized discourse, El Menyawi (2006), advoates for a localized, culturally-focused approach he calls “activism from the closet,” in order to protect the lives of LGBTIs. He contends that human rights advocates should encourage the solidification of privacy rights, while simultaneously expanding the discussion of sexual identities in Middle Eastern regions.
Although the current study focuses on the Middle East, it is important to note that this idea of Western influence, however, is not limited to just the Middle East.
Altman (1996) has observed global queering in what he has coined a “global gay” in
Asian and other non-Western societies – “internalization of a certain form of social and cultural identity based upon homosexuality” derived from American fashion and intellectual style (p. 77). His concept has been challenged as anecdotal, due to a lack of empirical studies demonstrating changes in social organization, political systems, and economics (Jackson, 2001), all of which have created LGBTI spaces in non-
Western countries.
I argue, however, that empirical studies do demonstrate this global queering.
Cantú’s (2009) study on Mexican men found that a “gay” or “homosexual” identity did not exist. The words used by Mexican gay men were activo (top) and pasivo 5
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(bottom), with only the male who identified as pasivo being socially stigmatized.
Cantú also found that a new term, internacional (international), had recently been used within the early 2000s to identify a male who was versatile, or was both the insertive and receptive partner depending on his mood. For Mexican, machismo culture, it is not the homosexual act itself, but the position an individual plays in the sexual intercourse. The receiving partner is stigmatized as effeminate and less than a man.
The term internacional highlights foreign cultural influence, specifically from the U.S.
This stigmatization of the receptive partner also occurs in Cuba (Peña, 2007),
Nicaragua (Lancaster, 1999), and most Arab countries (Massad, 2002).
Specific to the Middle East, Murray (1997) reasons sexuality is reduced to the role in which a man performs in the act of sex. There’s a distinction between taking pleasure and being used for pleasure. The role of the top is seen as dominate whereas the role of the bottom is seen as submissive. Submissive sexual roles are reserved for women, therefore a man acting as the bottom in same-sex intercourse is shamed for playing a woman’s role. While there are historical accounts of young men engaging in same-sex intimacy in the Middle East, the activity was not considered a long-term sexual identity (Najmabadi, 2005). Rather, it was understood as a phase in life, particularly during adolescent years (Labi, 2007).
As the current situation exists, there are 76 countries where same-sex intimacy is punishable by law (Bertrand, 2015). The highest concentration of countries with such laws are in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, where harsh sanctions – including imprisonment, fines, forced psychiatric treatment, physical 6
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abuse, and death – are imposed (Asal & Sommer, 2016; Rodriguez, 2016). Specific sanctions vary by country and, as mentioned previously, are determined by local forms of legal, political, moral, and religious codes or conventions (Fortier, 2002). The continuation of such laws and regulations justifies persecution and violence against those who are perceived to be homosexuals (Jordan, 2009).
In order to “prove” homosexuality, regimes of power5 have instituted methods that vary in levels of humiliation, degradation, and physical and emotional harm. For example, forced anal examinations are employed in Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya,
Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and Zambia (HRW, 2016). A finger or other object is inserted into the anus of the accused male by a law enforcement official or medical professional in order to determine whether he has engaged in homosexual activity. For lesbians, the trepidation of corrective rape is most salient in countries like
India, Jamaica, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and South Africa (Jain, 2015; Louw, 2014;
Morrissey, 2013). A lesbian will be raped in an attempt to “fix” her sexual orientation and force her to conform to gender sexual norms.6
Immigration, LGBTIs, and the U.S.
The current refugee system in the United States was set up by The Refugee Act of 1980. The Act was an effort to synchronize U.S. law with the 1951 United Nations
(UN) Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocal Relating to
5 “Regimes of power” is a term coined by Michel Foucault that focuses on power relationships in society. I use it throughout the study to represent governments, religion, and other organizations in power. 6 Corrective rape is not only prevalent among women; gay men and trans-women have also been targeted. Lesbians, however, are disproportionately affected. 7
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the Status of Refugees (Kerwin, 2015). Among the provisions of the Act were refugee admission procedures, the establishment of the U.S. refugee resettlement program, and institution of asylum procedures for individuals physically present in the U.S. or at its border/port of entry (Refugee Act, 1980). In order to be recognized as a refugee, an individual must meet certain criteria and go through an application process (detailed below).
The refugee system was not designed with LGBTI refugees and asylum- seekers in mind (Jordan, 2009). In some countries where there is legal entry for refugees and asylum-seekers on the basis of sexual orientation, individuals are subjected to revealing their sexuality, and in some instances proving their sexuality through humiliating methods such as penile phallometry7 (ORAM, 2016) and providing intimate photos (Hernando, 2016) among others. They may also be asked to disclose private and traumatic details about LGBTI’s tormented experiences (Jordan,
2009). Individuals who refuse these examinations or interrogations may be denied refugee protection or asylum. In countries that do not recognize persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) can render refugee status (ORAM, 2011).
The United States is one of the few countries that recognize asylum based on sexual orientation. In 2015, President Barrack Obama released his International
Initiative to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
7 Also known as penile plethysmography or PPG, this procedure attempts to scientifically quantify male sexual arousal by measuring physiological responses by placing a mechanical device on the penis that detects responses to visual stimuli; vaginal photoplethysmography or VPG is used on women. 8
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Persons, in which he instructed federal agencies to “promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons” (The White House, 2011, par. 2). In Section 2 of the memorandum President Obama outlined efforts to ensure that “LGBT refugees and asylum seekers have equal access to protection and assistance, particularly in countries of first asylum” (par. 4). This was a significant step for the U.S. given its history of limited attention to immigration and LGBTIs.
It wasn’t until 1990 that the U.S. asylum system even allowed gays to enter into the country. Luibheid & Cantú (2005) trace the exclusion of gays from the immigration system to 1917 when they were deemed as “psychopathic inferiors.” In
1994 U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno mandated that LGBTIs could claim asylum based on their sexuality, but HIV restrictions on immigration were put into place the same year. These incidents, however, are not isolated to LGBTIs. The U.S. has a history of upholding a White patriarchal heteronormative structure that remains, arguably, still in place today. For example, The Page Law of 1875 outlawed Chinese women from entering the country and deemed them as immoral and lewd. The law eventually extended to all Chinese in 1882 and then all Asians by the early 1900s. The
Ladies Agreement of the 1920s saw the exclusion of Japanese women (because their marriage to American men would spawn children who were a threat to the purity of the White race).
Also, laws like the Naturalization Act and the McCarren Act helped established white, nuclear, heterosexual families as prime “immigrants,” with three fourths of the citizenship being reserved for such immigrants in the mid-1900s. In fact, 9
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according to Luibheid & Cantú (2005), the first recorded transgender discrimination by immigration officials was recorded in 1910 when an immigrant by the last name of
Velas was turned away at Ellis Island for not conforming to traditional gender roles and wearing men’s clothing.
While the laws specifying who gains legal entry into the United States transform over time, the ramifications for those who are denied entry remain critical.
In the U.S. (and other Western countries such as Canada and the U.K.) one can qualify for refugee status or asylum if one is persecuted based on sexual orientation8.
Persecution can take on many forms including detention, criminal charges, arbitrary arrest, physical violence, forced medical treatment, exclusion from basic services available to the general population, systemic discrimination or other serious human rights abuses (ORAM, 2011). Persecution is always determined on an individual basis.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines a refugee as having met five criteria: (1) is located outside the U.S.; (2) is of special humanitarian concern to the U.S.; (3) demonstrates he/she was persecuted due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group; (4) is not firmly resettled in another country; and (5) is admissible to the U. S. The United States government recognizes LGBTIs under membership in a particular group. Therefore, LGBTIs may qualify for refugee status if they also meet the other criteria.
8 Asylum and refugee status are based on one or more of five grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group in accordance to Act 101(a)15P of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). 10
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In order to be considered as a refugee, an individual must be referred9 to the
U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Once a referral has been made, an individual will be assisted in filling out an application and will then be interviewed by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer to determine refugee eligiblity. According to DHS, refugees may include a spouse and children (and in limited cases other family members) in their application. In October 2015 the U.S.
State Department officially updated spouse to include same-sex partners (Gonzales,
2015). This substantial decision means that already qualified refugees and asylum seekers would be able to migrate with their same-sex partners, regardless of whether the couple is legally married or not, on the contingency that the refugee/asylum seeker files an Affidavit of Relationship with the State Department. From an individual perspective, this means that those fleeing persecution would not have to choose between their safety and their loved ones, an issue which plagued LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers in the past. The updated policy only applies to what the State
Department refers to as “Process Priorities” from 24 countries (including those with varying degrees of fatal punishments for the LGBTI community such as Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Somalia), which is handled through the family reunification program called P-3 (Ennis, 2015).
After being deemed a refugee, an individual must apply for permanent residence by filing Form I-485 (sometimes referred to as a green card) within one year of his/her arrival in the U.S. However, he/she is still able to legally work in the U.S. A
9 Cases are referred to the USRAP by the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 11
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refugee may also travel outside of the U.S., with the stipulation that he/she obtain a
Refugee Travel Document in order to re-enter the country. A refugee may also apply for asylum.
Asylum is “an immigration benefit that allows certain foreign nationals who fear persecution to remain lawfully in the U. S. indefinitely” (Immigration Equality, n.d., par. 1). An individual must apply for asylum within one year of his/her last entry into the U.S. Although one can apply for asylum on one’s own, it is highly recommended that an individual consult with an attorney. According to Immigration
Equality the length of the asylum process varies and can be long for some. In order to initiate the process, an individual must: (1) file Immigration Form I-589; (2) provide a declaration – detailed personal statement provided by the applicant; (3) provide corroborating documents to back up the applicant’s account – medical reports, police reports, or letters from witnesses; (4) provide country conditions documentation that demonstrates how the government of an applicant’s home country treat LGBTIs – reports, newspaper articles, or expert witness commentaries.
Once the application is filed, the Department of Homeland Security will acknowledge receipt of application. The next step is an asylum interview, however due to substantial backlogs, some applicants end up waiting months and sometimes years10. There are, however, a handful of applicants who are randomly chosen for quicker processing times, which is usually within six months of the applicant’s initial
10 The timespan of the application process has no association with the strength or weakness of an application. 12
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filing. After the interview, usually within two weeks, the applicant is given a decision in person. There are four possible outcomes. The agency will either: (1) grant asylum;
(2) recommend asylum approval; (3) provide a notice of intent to deny a case; or (4) refer the case to immigration court. If an applicant is provided a “Notice of Intent to
Deny” (NOID), he/she may submit further documentation to support his/her asylum.
Most attempts are unsuccessful and the applicant must leave the country when his/her authorized stay expires (Immigration Equality, n.d.).
Although the terms refugee and asylee are closely related (both expressing an individual with a substantiated fear of being persecuted for their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group, or political opinion), they are different in the U.S. legal system. According to the Organization for Refugee, Asylum and
Migration (2012), the term refugee refers to an individual who “received legal recognition outside of the country and was officially accepted under the U.S. Refugee
Admissions Program11” (p. 2). The term ‘asylee’ refers to an individual who “first entered the U.S, with or without legal status, and later applied for and received refugee protection” (p. 3). A third term, ‘asylum seeker,’ is defined as an individual “who has applied for or is in the process of seeking asylum in the U.S., but who has not yet been granted that status” (p. 3). The most significant difference is that an asylee is already in the U.S, whereas a refugee may still be in another country pending resettlement.
11 Many, but not all, refugees in the U.S. are also recognized as refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 13
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Refugees may travel through, and possibly stay, in transit countries before they reach a new country of resettlement.
The sample employed in the current study consists of asylees and asylum seekers at various stages of the legal process residing in the United States. All of the participants have identified with the category of refugee at one point in time and, because they are born in other countries, are all considered immigrants. For the purpose of this study, they will be referred to as “LGBTI refugees/asylees.” Important to note is that asylees and refugees (with the exception of asylum seekers) are rendered the same rights and benefits by the federal government, as well as local and state authorities (ORAM, 2012). There is also a commonality of endured persecution, resettlement and, specific to LGBTIs, rejection by non-LGBTI refugees.
The current study brings together two controversial, yet salient, issues – immigration and gay rights – in a period of intense political and social polarization in the United States by focusing on LGBTI refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers. The lived experiences of these individuals from exile to asylum help shape their social identities. This research seeks to understand how the interactions, both in their native homeland and in their country of asylum, contribute to the construction and reconstruction of the intersectional identity of an LBTI refugee/asylee living in the queer diaspora of San Francisco.
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CHAPTER II
QUEER DIASPORA AND THE MIDDLE EASTERN GAY
A three-year-old’s body lay lifeless on a Greek beach. His head turned sideways, it almost appears as if he’s asleep. He is fully clothed, tennis shoes and all.
The ocean waves are caught retreating just inches from his face as Turkish authorities stand nearby. A haunting moment captured in time that perfectly epitomizes the risks some refugees are willing to take in order to start a new life. The picture was first published in Turkish media and then picked up by media around the world. It was also shared on Twitter using the hashtag #KiyiyaVuraninsanlik, which is Turkish for
‘Flotsam of Humanity’ (Clarke & Shoichet, 2015). They boy’s name is Aylan Kurdi, a
Syrian refugee who drowned along with his 5-year-old brother, Galip, and mother,
Rehan, attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos (Bloch, 2015). Aylan’s family is one of thousands fleeing Syria due to war between ISIS and Kurdish fighters. As of
May 2016, 4.8 million refugees have fled Syria and over 6.6 million people are displaced internally by the violence (UNOCHA, 2016).
Refugees flee areas for various reasons, including violence and war, as in
Aylan’s case. The refugees are powerless and settle in new countries forming diasporas with those that share a commonality, usually ethnic or cultural (Hall, 1990).
This chapter is dedicated to explicating the notion of a queer diaspora. First, general academic discourse of diaspora is presented, followed by the conceptualization of
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queer diaspora. I conclude the chapter with a synthesis of the literature’s relationship to the current study.
Diaspora
In its original conceptualization, diaspora was used to define any population form its original land and its settlement in one or numerous lands (Alonso &
Oiarzabal, 2010). Diaspora was later redefined to describe the scattering of Jews and
Armenians outside of their Holy Land of Israel and carried a negative connotation of trauma and forced exile (Tölölyan, 1996). The term was then applied as a blueprint to interpret other population’s displacements such as Africans and Armenians (Alonso &
Oiarzabal, 2010; Chaliand & Rageau, 1995). Since then, diaspora has now come to define various marginalized and persecuted groups (Karim, 2004). The word itself is derivative of the Greek word diaspeirein – the scattering of seeds (Alonso &
Oiarzabal, 2010).
Migrations of the past few centuries have been directly influenced by colonization and trade, as well as advancements in transportation and communication technologies (Karim, 2004). More recent diasporic migrations have been motivated by economic opportunities and resources in the West. Individuals in underdeveloped countries or non-Western regions with political turmoil have been persuaded to migrate west. The individuals that migrate settle in new lands and territories forming the diaspora, a third space that becomes the cultural border between one’s native country and one’s new home country (Bhabha, 1994). Diasporas are incessantly
“constructed, debated, and reimagined” (Mandaville, 2003, p. 135). The identities of 16
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those living within the diasporic space are shaped by the context of history and the present, such as social, cultural, temporal and spatial factors (Karim, 2004).
Much like Bhabha (1994), Stuart Hall (1990) has referred to diaspora as a third new world presence that “is not so much power, as ground, place, territory” (p. 234)
It’s a place where creolization and assimilation are constantly negotiated and renegotiated. Diasporas were traditionally framed as produced by conscious minded- individuals who migrated out of economic need (Clifford, 1994), but is now, after additional research, regarded as the movement of people as the result of push factors that include persecution, genocide, hate crimes, poverty, and war. Diaspora is created out of existential angst (Fortier, 2002) and one cannot ignore the implicit issues of power and persecution. Diasporas are formed out of pain and torment (Butler, 2012), and located in a liminal space between leaving and arriving (Eng, 2007). LGBTIs are at the center of issues of power, persecution, and existential angst. This is discussed in further detail in the section that follows.
Transnational and global communication has assisted individuals and groups to remain connected across the world (Karim, 2004). Arjun Appadurai (2010) argues that because of diaspora, the political narratives to manage communication between elites in the home country and those dispersed across the world are subject to semantic and pragmatic problems. Semantically, words and concepts necessitate meticulous translation from one context to the next, whether that be transnational or global.
Pragmatically, these translations are subject to mediation by political actors and audiences that operate under varying sets of contextual conventions than those in the 17
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homeland. One of the major endeavors of the current study is to examine how communication (mediated and interpersonal) is consumed, deconstructed, and reconstructed by the LGBTIs in both pre-asylum and post-asylum contexts. The context of those interactions has implications on the internalization of phenomenon, specifically homosexual concepts, into the overall identity negotiation process of the
LGBTI refugees/asylees.
Queer Diaspora
Judith Butler’s (2012) theorization of a diaspora focuses on more than just how diaspora functions; it places emphasis on how people in the diaspora became diasporic. Butler highlights the individual’s experience of diaspora as anchored in grief, loss, instability, violence, displacement, injustice, reconciliation, and the search for solidarity and coexisting. In her queer perspective of diaspora, Butler argues that countries create refugees specifically to maintain and sustain homogeneity. LBTIs, particularly in the Middle East, are not consistent with the standardization of heteronormativity, therefore they are made refugees.
Once LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers flee their homelands, there is no turning back (Sinfield, 2000). They are exiled and estranged; there is no longer a home to which they can return (Fortier, 2002). For these individuals, home is a place you arrive to, instead of a place from which you came (Eng, 1997). There is a “homing desire” experienced by these individuals, “the desire to feel at home achieved by physically or symbolically (re)constituting spaces which provide some kind of
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ontological security in the context of migration” (Brah, 1996, p. 180). Sometimes,
NGOs can aid in this process of satisfying this homing desire.
Most LGBTI migrants do not arrive in their host country to immediately begin assimilation; rather they continue to experience engagements with heteronormative regimes of power (Manalansan, 2003). Often, along the way they are forced to spend time in intermediary countries like Turkey in the case of migrants from the Middle
East region of the world. This interjects another intercultural dimension that the
LGBTIs must navigate. Also, there are legal issues to battle throughout, and after, the asylum and citizenship process with which NGOs help the LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. Instead of adopting a model of LGBTI asylum as a journey from repression to liberation, the current study stresses the phenomenological experiences of these individuals as restructured inequalities, opportunities, and occurrences
(Manalansan, 2003).
Diasporas are addressed in two themes according to Fortier (2002), the first is through scattering and diversity and the second is through exile and home. Diaspora is seen as a place of disjuncture that has to do with the scattering of diverse populations around the world. Diaporas are exotified and glorified by some Western LGBTIs
(Watney, 2005). Diaspora has been communicated in the media as a synonym for travel and leisure. Puar (1994) criticizes this approach and maintains while it’s true, it isn’t right. Puar points out that scholars like Watney neglect the fact that bodies do not just “travel to,” but are also “traveled upon.” White, affluent, males can often move freely between countries and through diasporas. It is not the same for some LGBTIs of 19
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color or women in general. There is a hegemonic power structure that cannot be ignored when we speak of diaspora (Fortier, 2002).
The second theme of exile and home asks us to broaden our thinking about diaspora from the narrow focus of a connection to a geographic homeland. Diaspora, according to Fortier (2002) cannot only be defined in terms of a traumatic uprooting.
Home is something that forced-migrants have left behind. The homeland is a place of heteronormative structure that cannot be returned to for most. According to Sinfield
(2000 ), “Home is a place you get to, not the place you came from. Instead of dispersing, we assemble” (p. 103). In the case of LGBTIs, there is only arrival.
Diaspora for most is a place of home. It’s a place where, as Hall (1990) defines it, diasporic groups can create a hybridity of sorts. They can create an identity through their own customs and culture, many of which include music and art. The media help keep diasporic individuals connected to other places around the world, but can also help create and maintain a collective identity. For queer diaspora there is an even greater need for collective forces to be shaped and molded. As Butler (2012) points out, individuals in the diaspora are unwilled and unchosen, but are unchosen together.
Thus, a queer diaspora helps provide a communal and safe environment for LGBTIs who are persecuted amid other LGBTIs.
A queer diaspora is created not by ethnic markers, but by a shared sentiment of discrimination, oppression, exile, and angst (Fortier, 2002). It is innately queer, precarious, and dispossessed (Butler, 2012), as is the LGBTI. Consistent with the identity of an LGBTI, a diaspora is continually being deconstructed and reimagined 20
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(Mandaville, 2003). I argue there is an instinctive bond between the two. Most LGBTI migrants, both forced and voluntary, cannot settle with their countrymen and remain out (Luibheid & Cantú , 2005). Specific to Middle Eastern LGBTIs, there are not any instances recorded in academic literature, nor through NGO research, that show a collective diaspora where heterosexuals and openly homosexuals live positively amongst each other. Even though a queer diaspora is not defined solely in ethnic terms, it is important to note that some LGBTIs of color experience an intersectionality of oppression once they are in a host country. For example, Puar
(2008) found that following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Sikh gay men living in the U.S. were perceived to be both Middle Eastern and Muslim, and experienced racism in addition to homophobia.
Romanticized notions that surround homosexuals, particularly recounted in the travel experiences of Westerners in non-Western regions, conceal the harsh realities of persecution and violence (Altman, 2002). These realities create LGBTI refugees and push them into other areas that are more tolerant and accepting. The current study focuses on how LGBTI refugees/asylees are forced to flee areas in the Middle East as a result of their nonconformity to heteronormative regimes of power. Specifically, it investigates the journey from exile to asylum and the roles communication plays. The past cannot be removed from these relegated individuals, nor can the power dynamics they encounter at various temporal and spatial instances along the journey. This innately is something they must juxtapose with other facets of their identity. The current study seeks to understand how. 21
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CHAPTER III
TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Communication and the technologies that enable it have evolved over the course of history. The evolution from legacy media to digital media in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has brought about unique challenges at both local and global levels. These challenges take on the form of access, equity, and ethics. Media have largely flowed globally from West to East and North to South. This flow has disrupted and influenced cultures, languages, and social change. The current study examines the roles media and communication (specific to temporal and spatial boundaries of the
Middle East and San Francisco) play in the identity negotiation of gay refugees/asylees both pre- and post-asylum.
The gay refugees/asylees interviewed were socialized in the Middle East and were exposed to local, regional, transnational, and global media in their respective native countries. As addressed in Chapter One, the practice of same-sex intimacy has always been performed in this region of the world; however the concepts of ‘gay’ and
‘homosexual’ as categories of identity were not indigenous to the Middle Eastern
(Najmabadi, 2005; Massad, 2002). It’s important to examine how various forms of media and mediated platforms influence how LGBTIs, particularly gay males, came to identify with these categories.
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This chapter accounts for how mediated communication has been integrated into the postcolonial landscape of the Middle East, specifically through global and transnational processes. The chapter begins with a historical narrative of media’s roots and then continues with a globalized viewpoint and media’s penetration in Middle
Eastern countries. The chapter concludes with an assessment of digital media’s influence on advocacy from both a global citizen and NGO perspective.
Historical Content
After World War II, research was conducted not only on how the media persuaded individuals, but also who controlled the media and to what ends. After Nazi propaganda (and arguably American propaganda that swayed Americans to buy into the war efforts) was highlighted, there was a warrant to study the effects of media. The
Axis powers, however, utilized propaganda to more heinous ends, therefore there was urgent need for both academic and pragmatic research efforts.
Before diving into how the inequalities were directly addressed, let’s go back to the inception of media. Before the advent of electronic media (radio, film, television, Internet), there was print media. While the Gutenberg Bible (1450s) has been regarded as the first substantial book printed in masses (Briggs & Burke, 2010),
Benedict Anderson (1983) contends that the novel was the first method of mediated communication that was used to instigate and maintain not only news and information, but also to foster affective nationalist ideals. While a nation, he argues, is imaginary, the notion of a national identity is completely real and is grounded in not only territory, but also in symbolism. 23
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In the late 19th century European nations began to set up media cartels that would not only serve to circulate media within their own countries, but would also control communication with their respective colonies all over the world. Among the first were Reuters in Great Britain, Hava in France, and Wolff in Germany, which created a cartel of telegraph services corresponding to their international holdings and interests. Although these media cartels didn’t create one, monolithic Western culture, there was a predominant flow of information from North to South and West to East with very little contra-flow. This, arguably, was the inception of what Boyd-Barrett
(1977) refers to as media imperialism,12 as well as the catalyst to later phases of globalization (Robertson, 1992). The first of any kind of international regulations dealt with the postal service and then advanced to broadcasting of radio, television and eventually satellite, network digital communication. I use the term international here, but later transnational, because Ekecrantz (2007) maintains that we need to differentiate between the terms international (flow between one country to another), transnational (among many countries), and global (many entities, not necessarily countries working as one, planetary unit). Both Rantanen (2008) and Straubhaar
(1991) argue that, in media and communication studies, we have moved through this continuum to a sole focus on globalization.
In 1974, the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) was proposed by a group of non-aligned nations at a meeting of the United Nations
12 Media Imperialism was defined by J. Oliver Boyd-Barrett (1977) as "the process whereby the ownership, structure, distribution, or the content of the media in any country singly or together subject to substantial external pressures from the media interests of other country or countries, without proportionate reciprocation of influence by the country so affected" (p. 117 ). 24
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Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in an effort to combat the unequal balance of media control and dissemination. Among the issues addressed were the heavy flow of information from Western countries to non-Western counties, the limited resources of non-Western countries, the advancement of the U.S. in terms of computer technology over the rest of the world, and geosynchronous satellite allocations that were reserved solely for Western countries. The International
Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, chaired by Sean MacBride from Ireland, was charged with investigating the imbalances and considering the
NWICO proposal. The commission, which included representatives from 15 countries, held its first meeting in Costa Rica in 1976. It is significant to note the fact that every single delegate at the meeting was male with the exception of the female representative from Canada. The only reason she attended was because the original
UN representative, who was male, fell ill and couldn’t attend. This underscores the fact the majority of the decisions then (and still today) are made by elite males, usually of the dominant class in their respective countries.
The commission released its report Many Voices One World, also commonly referred to as the MacBride Report, in 1980. The report identified many issues with global communication, specifically commercialization, the concentration of media power and resources in Western countries, and unequal access. To address these issues, the commission suggested a reinforcing of national media in developing nations an effort to discourage dependency by non-Western countries on Western resources (Roach, 1990). The U.S and the U.K took issue with some of the 25
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committee’s suggestions and “judged the organization to be corrupt and too prone to
Moscow’s influence” (Fitchett, 2002, par. 3). The U.S left UNESCO in the mid-80s
(AP, 1985), however returned to the organization briefly in 200213. At the time of writing, the U.S. was still not a member of UNESCO.
As the years and the challenges of international media progressed, so did the need for a global governing body. This was the mission of supranational organizations which formed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1948, which later changed its name to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The organization oversaw a majority of disputes over international communication flow; however, there was criticism from non-Western countries that it only furthered the interests of the elite, which included Western governments and transnational corporations, thus advancing neoliberalism. In 1998, countries from twenty nations came together to figure out how to formulate regulations to prevent the WTO from obstructing their cultural media production and dissemination (Turner, 1998), also known as cultural imperialism. Transnational corporations (TNCs) had taken over control of not just the production of global media, but also its distribution
(McChesney, 2010). Non-western countries were struggling to compete in such a highly commercialized arena.
Also of importance is the issue of the digital divide outlined by Eli Noam
(2010). He states that there are three divides that have been brought on by
13 The U.S. later rejoined to quell international opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in the name of promoting human rights, tolerance and education (Reinalda, 2009). 26
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globalization: (1) telecommunication divide – issues of production, consumption, and understanding of telecommunication technologies in non-Western countries, (2)
Internet Divide – in which there is an issue of access and understanding of use in regards to the Internet in third world countries, and (3) E-commerce divide – in which members of the third-world are not as advanced in the practice and procedure of selling commodities online. Issues of advancement in technology are present in more industrialized, Western countries. Noam states that the first two gaps are quickly closing as intervention efforts are made on behalf of supranational organizations and
NGOs. However, he argues that the closing of the first two gaps will only exacerbate the third gap by further perpetuating capitalism by allowing first-world countries another outlet to sell to third-world countries.
Also to consider is that individuals in Non-western countries may still be directly affected by these divides and inequalities, which impacts information seeking and communication efforts. The current study incorporates inquiries about technology use in the native countries of the gay refugees/asylees, specifically issues of online access and transnational media. Because the individuals interviewed were all from the
Middle East, it is important to examine the influence of technology and media platforms. Structural power differences related to each individual participant, such as others good will, NGOs, resources in the West, and literacy, among others, are also considered.
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Globalization
As the progression of media flow has grown from international and transnational to global, we see non-Western countries starting to make their mark on the communication industry. Bollywood, telenovelas, and other non-Western content are starting to be distributed on a global scale. Globalization, as outlined by Ekecrantz
(2007), constitutes a social system with the capacity to operate as a singular global unit in real or selected time. This capacity encompasses technological capacity, institutional capacity, organizational capacity, or all three working in connection with each other.
The onset of globalization has taken Habermas’ (1996) original concept of the public sphere from its original physical spaces to mediated ones. Thompson (2000) argues that the media have been the main component of the modernized public sphere since the onset of an industrial society and mass media technology. Castells (2010) builds on this contention, but argues that in the digital era there is a new global public sphere that includes a more diverse global civil society that interacts with communication networks and global governments. To be more specific, this global civil society also includes local civil actors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), social movements, and the movement of public opinion. Due to the lack of national governments to attend to crises of legitimacy, equity, and ideology among others; the global civil society is responsible for maintaining civil order.
One of the characteristics of the global sphere that has evolved from
Habermas’ original conceptualization is the inclusion of horizontal communication – 28
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the ability for everyday individuals to create content and communicate directly with their peers as opposed to the traditional vertical model of communication where practically all content was created by an elite-controlled state and/or private media
(Castells, 2010). The media are no longer the sole creators and distributors of information; now individuals, community groups, advocacy groups, labor groups and many others are capable of generating and circulating content. Social movements and public opinion can now be created and shaped not only through traditional media, but also through the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as the Internet, social media, and mobile phones.
Specific to the Middle East region, the public sphere is positioned to not only address mainstream government and religious narratives, but also to create counter- narratives. For example, Facebook aided in the organization of the Arab Springs uprising in 2011 and helped disseminate images globally (Al-Jenaibi, 2014). Scenes of protests and civil unrest were circulated through the Internet, most of which were picked up and rebroadcasted through legacy media sources. The ability to create and disseminate content on new media has given power to the people and imparted the ability to function outside the parameters of governments and traditional media, thus giving some equity not only to non-Western countries, but also people living below the middle-class. Although the new media has provided some equity, there is still an issue of access. Not everyone is connected and, in fact, not everyone is globalized
(Castells, 2010). This demonstrates that globalization still has power structures and, arguably, always will. Specific to the current study, the LGBTIs interviewed come 29
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from diverse ranges of social economic status that impact their Internet access. As outlined in Chapter Seven, access has a direct impact on the ways in which they retrieve Western and homosexual content.
A final point: due to the inability of nationally-based political systems to efficiently address and manage the world issues on a global scale, there is an increase in global civil actors such as NGOs and other transnational-focused groups who use global media (Castells, 2010). The proliferation of the Internet has also aided in world- wide communication both on individual and mass levels. As has long been the case, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what “culture” is where and how who exactly is influencing who. While there have been valid concerns about media imperialism
(Schiller, 1969), today’s audiences now have greater access to other non-Western cultures and their ways of life. For example, how the Arab Springs uprising (Dabashi,
2012), the Zapatista movement (Castells, Yawaza, & Kiselyova, 1995), and the
Myanmar demonstrations (Stirland, 2007) have all inspired world-wide attention and support. There is no longer only a West-to-East or North-to-South flow, but now a nominal presence of contra-flow in the mix that media and communication scholars, as well as NGOs, need to consider. Digital advocacy and social movements are discussed in further detail in the next sections.
Western Media and the Middle East
The Middle East, like many regions of the world, is not immune to the penetration of Western media and has been researched by many scholars (Armbrust,
2012; Kraidy, 2003; Mellor, 2013). Most academic research focused on the region is 30
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influenced by “the unique sociocultural and political context” of the region, juxtaposing the intricate relationship of local media and government with regional and international media (Mellor, 2013, p. 202). The first academic studies investigating
Middle Eastern countries and transnational media focused primarily on Western influences on an Arabic-speaking audience (Abdel-Rahman, 1985). Since then, due in part to postcolonial nationalism, there has been a shift to research how audiences, specifically Arab audiences, react to Middle Eastern-produced media as well (Mellor,
2013).
It’s been argued that academic research in communication in Middle Eastern countries has primarily centered on a “technological determinism that has focused on the impact of news over entertainment and the causal effect of television and the
Internet on a vibrant public sphere” (Armbrust, 2012, p. 48). However, Hafez (2013) argues that entertainment media, music and pop culture predominately, are just as penetrating and ubiquitous in the Middle East. He claims most Middle Easterners use media as a form of escapism, rather than to negotiate their political or social views.
Previous research has demonstrated that Middle Eastern audiences who consumed satellite television programs from the West or Westernized Middle Eastern-produced shows had more favorable views about the West (Al-Shaqsi, 2002). The research also concluded that Middle Eastern viewers who consumed terrestrial media with traditional programming held more traditional gendered views.
This media effect can also be attributed to distrust among Middle Eastern audiences toward government controlled media. Mellor (2013) argues that propaganda 31
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has been inserted into regional media since its inception, causing a sentiment of distrust to grow among the audience. He credits the catalyst of this distrust to the war in the Middle East in the early 90s when a radio station, Voice of the Arabs, was found to be spreading misinformation about the Gulf War14. Audiences turned to the BBC for a different perspective. Now, according to Mellor, there is a split between news media outlets preferred among Middle Easterners not only in their native countries, but also in the Middle Eastern diaspora in the West. This distrust may also be fostered among LGBTIs living in the region due to strict media regulations, including the one on homosexual content. Such suspicion of the media may also be brought over with them to their new home.
Trust may be placed in foreign media where a sense of acceptance and friendliness in the West is fostered for LGBTIs living in non-Western countries, thus aiding in the construction of imagined identities. Puar (2008) suggests that LGBTI migrants may use media to inform themselves on more accepting places around the globe. Because of the Euro-American popular culture (television, music, film, websites), there is also a form of virtual tourism that recruits these migrants (Wesling,
2008). Altman suggest that the U.S. acceptance of homosexuals was only made possible through affluence and liberalism, both of which were manifested in the late
60s during student-led social movements. In other parts of the world, LGBTIs had more “pressing” political issues to address aside from their sexuality (such as safety,
14 The Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, was a war fought by a coalition of 34 countries led by the United States against Iraq in retaliation to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait (Freedman & Karsh, 1993). 32
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war, poverty, and hunger among others). LGBTI civil rights movements in these countries didn’t happen until well after the U.S. civil rights movements of the late 60s and early 70s. Currently there is a surge of LGBTI rights, as well as other human rights, movements taking place all over the world, facilitated by the Internet and social media (Chua & Gilbert, 2015; Gies, 2016; Rodriguez, 2016).
Digital Content
Transnational communication, which is propagated by the Internet in addition to legacy media such as television, radio, and print, allows linkages between global users (Karim, 2004), a linkage that aids in the dissemination of global LGBTI content
(Rodriguez, 2016) and the ability for immigrants living abroad in diasporas to remain in contact with people and issues in their home country (Papaioanou & Olivos, 2013).
There are two issues to attend to here: the use of digital media as means of information and asylum seeking pre-asylum, and the use of digital media as a means of identity negotiation post-asylum. Both will be addressed, since both are essential to the current study.
As gay refugees/asylum seekers and migrants leave their homelands, either voluntarily or by force, they take the myths, languages, values, and traditions of their ancestry with them (Karim, 2004). These nostalgic relics carry bitter-sweet reminiscences of a physical place they love, but one that may not love them for being homosexual. The post-asylum identity must incorporate not only these vestiges of the past, but also the unfamiliar challenges of life in a new space and culture. The individuals must juggle all of these intersectional identities in addition to their 33
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homosexuality or queerness, which is discussed in more detail in the following sections. I argue that since representation of gay refugees/asylum seekers in the mainstream media is almost non-existent, these individuals look toward the Internet to both find and create representation.
The use of digital media not only attends to issues of identity but can also foster a sense of recruitment and acceptance by the West. LGBTI individuals in non-
Western countries are exposed to Western concepts of gays and lesbians in both traditional and digital media that lead to the visualization of the West as a sanctuary for LGBTIs (Puar, 2002). The Internet creates a novel and efficient way to navigate
“cultural, racial, and class differences as well as physical space” (Manalansan, 2006, p. 234). It also gives way to a “sexual migration” of sorts (Carillo, 2004) by providing a platform from which individuals can browse global websites with homosexual content. This is in contrast to a standardizing process where migrants move for economic opportunity, the intentions of heterosexual reproduction, or safety. Carillo
(2004) suggests that migration also enables queer practices, identities, and subjectivities.
Euro-American popular culture (television, music, film, websites), also offers a form of virtual tourism that recruits these LGBTI migrants (Wesling, 2008). The
Internet, specifically, gives these individuals access to a life outside their homeland and allows them a lens of sexual desire and pleasure (Manalansan, 2006), often adding tension between tradition and modernity. This “pleasure-seeking” migrant subject creates a contradictory situation to that of the persecuted migrant who flees his/her 34
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country for safety, however, it’s a perspective still to consider when exploring how
LGBTIs utilize digital media in identity negotiation. Manalansan (2006) states academics should contemplate a queer perspective on migration and suggests “going beyond a laboring gendered agent and highlighting a desiring and pleasure-seeking migrant subject” (p. 243). All things considered, this means that LGBTIs are not void of innate human feelings of sexual pleasure and, like all individuals, are justified in needing not only safety, but also sexual and emotional enjoyment.
Through all of this, I also argue that mobility and privilege must be kept in mind. Not all bodies move freely through borders and some are marked as threatening, undesirable, and inferior (Puar, 1994). LGBTIs in the Middle East, like many other non-Western foreigners, may not have access to travel to Western countries or are denied access by regimes of power (both their own and foreign). Women in a majority of Middle Eastern countries are also not able to travel between borders without a male escort and some limit the pursuit of education (Moghadam, 2003). This makes it extremely difficult for lesbians trying to flee persecution. Many LGBTIs must make special arrangements or sneak away at opportune times (ORAM, 2012). While
Western digital media beckons LGBTIs to a world of acceptance and merriment, most are not afforded the mobility or privilege to traverse the mediated, digital spaces to those areas that are tangible and able to be experienced in the flesh. The Western war on terror has also complicated migration for individuals from the Middle East.
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Digital Advocacy and the Global Citizen
As mentioned above, the onset of globalization has produced a global public sphere (Castells, 2010) which includes a more global and diverse civil society (made up of media, local civil actors, NGOs, social movements, and the movement of public opinion). It is through an interaction amongst global citizens, the global civil society, and global governance, “communicating through this public sphere, that ensures that the balance between stability and social change is maintained in the conduct of public affairs” (p. 37). The “people” in this global public sphere help create a dialogue that local governments and supranational organizations must react to. If any of the entities in the global civil society fail to participate efficiently or if communication is between entities is hindered, then a crisis of legitimacy occurs15 (Habermas, 1976). This is followed by a crisis of authority, which may ultimately result in a redefinition of power relationships established in regimes of power (Sassen, 2006). Social change is the result of this instability.
From an advocacy standpoint, digital media allows individuals to easily find others who advocate for similar issues, thus developing collective identities online
(Wojcieszak, 2009; Harlow & Harp, 2012) and, in the process, forming online communities and networks (Nip, 2004). At the same time, this also makes advocates more visible and thus easier for authorities to identify them. A majority of refugee- focused NGOs are aware of these issues and have employed methods of interpersonal
15 The whole system of representation and decision making shuts down and citizens fail to see themselves represented in institutions of society (Habermas, 1976). 36
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contact and inside informants to help reduce the amount of online intrusion, and possibly disconnection.
Although globalization and communication technology has positioned global citizens to engage in addressing injustices and disseminating information, there are still issues of access and safety. Not everyone is connected, but everyone is affected, and in fact, those without value to the network or without access are disconnected
(Castells, 2010). This of course, occurs in differing degrees depending on geographic location, social economic status, and regulations among others. There are also limitations and restrictions placed on Internet usage and various websites by government bodies. There is also a danger in using digital media in some areas of the world. The media in Middle Eastern countries, particularly, are generally closely scrutinized and controlled by governments, either by overt communication laws or through direct ownership (Warf &Vincent, 2007). These regulations cover all traditional media and extend into cyberspace (Human Rights Watch, 1999).
Governments and other organizations are able to monitor and identify individuals who do not conform to their codes of conduct. For example, in the Queen
Boat incident described in Chapter One, Egyptian authorities were able to track the men mostly through their Internet correspondence (Massad, 2002). Most Middle
Eastern governments habitually defend censorship by arguing it protects Islamic values and morality against Western depravity (Fandy, 1999). Censorship and regulation vary in degrees of concentration across Arabic countries, however Warf and
Vincent (2007) argue the most active and strict censorship occurs in Saudi Arabia. 37
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Digital media have both its benefits and downfalls for advocacy work in the Middle
East. Each individual LGBTI refugee’s story is unique and each approach on behalf of advocates must be tailored to regional and individual needs.
Digital Advocacy and the NGO
The use of digital media as a platform for organizational communication has been previously researched in the fields of public relations and mass communication.
Digital endeavors on the organization’s part attempt to foster relationships with publics by disseminating information, instigating symmetrical communication, building community, and nurturing trust (Hallahan, 2008; Ma & Yuen, 2011; Preece,
2000). Specific to NGOs, previous research has found that NGOs use digital media as a tool to interact and engage with external publics (Briones, Kuch, Liu, & Jin, 2011;
Saxton & Guo, 2011). One study found the most important functions of organizational communication on social media for transnational NGOs were fundraising and promotion of the organization’s identity (Seo, Kim, & Yang, 2009).
In another study, Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) developed a typology of how
NGOs used tweets, by investigating Twitter usage by the 100 largest U.S.-based
NGOs. The authors’ typology included three main categories (information, community, and action), however it neglected the affective content. Rodriguez (2016) expanded the typology, as well as the focus, to include Facebook posts, and also developed a more nuanced typology specific to LGBTI refugee/asylum-seeker NGOs.
The study also found that these niche NGOs utilized social media primarily toward a
North American audience for fundraising, information dissemination, and affective 38
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appeal16. Additionally, there was a fostering of LGBTI social capital, as the NGOs linked primarily back to the originating NGO or other LGBTI organizations.
Previous research has also found that social media use among organizations focused on social movements concentrated on information dissemination and mobilization (Günel & KaraoGlu, 2015). Organizations used Facebook and Twitter as recruitment for physical real-world activities, and to disseminate information in real- time for those individuals who cannot attend the event, but can follow on line. These activities were geared at mobilizing organization members with other political actors and advocates.
Thrall, Stecula, and Sweet (2014) also conducted an important study of NGOs and global communication. The researchers argue there is a lack of attention among global audiences that not even a sense of interconnectedness, nor a narrowing of the global digital divide will fix. The researchers investigated over a hundred global
NGOs over the course of a year and found that only three NGOs dominated over 50% of the traditional media attention. They claim that a zero-sum gain exists in terms of audience attention and all NGOs not only compete against each other, but also against other news media outlets. The researchers argued in their discussion that the top
NGOs already have been around for a long time and already have developed high levels of both popularity and trust. They have more money because they have more donors and are able to harvest more news and information. Also, they have great ties
16 The NGOs incorporated refugee stories in their tweet content, as well as photos and videos depicting the physical repercussions of violence toward LGBTIs. 39
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with legacy media outlets, so their stories are picked up by radio and television stations at both the national and global levels. In short, the limited attention of global audiences tends to be captured by those NGOs with money and legacy.
An example of a Middle Eastern LGBTI refugee-focused NGO is the Iranian
Queer Railroad (IRQR), a Canada-based organization that aids Iranian queer refugees world-wide. Prior to its initiation, there had been other pro-LGBTI rights groups in
Iran that used print magazines and pamphlets to disseminate information, but never really established themselves as a viable resource. Arsham Parsi, who created the
IRQR, used the Internet (specifically YouTube and Myspace) to reach more people and establish his organization as a human rights resource for Iranian LGBTIs. Parsi had previously spearheaded two other queer organizations (Rainbow Group on Yahoo
Groups in 2001 and the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) in 2003) and found much success utilizing the Internet for recruitment and information distribution
(Shakhsari, 2012). IRQR currently uses the Internet and social media to aid refugees and advocate for LGBTIs in Iran and the rest of the MENA region. As such it is directly involved in the international communication and advocacy efforts this dissertation examines.
Media, Communication, & Identity
Transnational and global media have introduced Western media and concepts to non-Western countries. Of specific interest to the current study is the penetration of
Western media in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The interviewees who participated in the current study include gay refugees/asylees from the Middle 40
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East who currently reside in the queer diaspora of the United States. The types of media used, both legacy and digital, pre-asylum to explore Western concepts of homosexuality and seek information concerning asylum warrants further examination.
The current study investigates how media and communication is used to negotiate identity in gay refugees/asylees.
Furthermore, in a post-asylum context, digital media may provide the gay refugees/asylees a medium to advocate for other LGBTIs in multiple regions of the world. For refugees, the Internet and social media enable participation in global and transnational culture, a way for them to share and compare their lived experiences to others both in their homeland and in their host country, as well as transitional countries like Turkey (Wilding, 2012). Although there are other constraints online, individuals are not bounded by a particular space or culture.
Organizational communication is another dimension examined in the current study. As mentioned above, LGBTI refugee-focused NGOs are positioned to help
LGBTI refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers. How these organizations use media and communication to communicate to global citizens seeking refuge and asylum is investigated by interviewing communication officers and employees representing four
NGOs. Organizational communication consists of both interpersonal and mediated communication, therefore it compliments those communication interactions also experienced by the gay refugees/asylees.
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CHAPTER IV
IDENTITY: INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL
The study of identity interrogates how individuals construct and negotiate their personal, social, and cultural identities in both intracultural and intercultural encounters. Pruitt (2001) broadly defines negotiation as “a process aimed at reconciling conflicting desires or viewpoints” (p. 269). Identity negotiation is an on- going process in which identity is constantly being molded and maintained. Several theorists have identified a tension between an individual’s personal identity and their social collective identity (Hecht, 1993; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Ting-Toomey, 1986), which creates a conflict in the negotiation process. Because identity negotiation simultaneously involves both individual and social factors, this study utilizes the theoretical framework of social identity (Jenkins, 1994, 2008) as a lens to examine how gay refugees/asylees negotiate their identity within social and systemic infrastructures,17 specifically through communicative interactions within those spaces.
The theoretical framework of social identity as conceptualized by Jenkins
(1994, 2008) will also be applied to LGBTI refugees/asylee-focused NGOs to better understand how the organizations employ communication endeavors to help this particular population. This chapter provides an exposition of the theoretical roots and epistemological underpinnings of social identity as conceptualized by Jenkins (1994,
2008) – symbolic interactionism. It is important to clarify that social identity was not developed by Jenkins, however his ontological and epistemological position
17 Systemic infrastructures include social groups, social environments, cultures, cities, and/or nations. 42
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influenced his interpretation of theoretical framework, as outlined below. My goal here is to establish the ontological perspective through which this study is interpreted, especially in terms of reality and identity. Reality, as well as identity, is not innate or fixed. It is something that is constantly being constructed through social interactions; it is a state of being, rather than a state of achieving (Blumer, 1969; Carey, 1989;
Jenkins, 2008; Mead, 1934). The gay refugees/asylees’ lived experiences are what shape and reshape their reality, as well as their identity. It is these lived experiences within which social interactions occur that this study seeks to examine. The chapter concludes with an explication of social identity and how it is relevant to the phenomenon of identity negotiation in gay refugees/asylees.
Theoretical Roots
Social identity is rooted in symbolic interaction. George H. Mead didn’t coin the term “symbolic interaction,” but he had much influence on Blumer, who not only refined the term, but also operationalized it. Mead’s social behaviorism attempts to explain individual behavior in relation to the continuous interaction of human beings
(Mead, 1934). Society, to Mead, is multifaceted and comprised of multiple networks that are enveloped within a larger societal structure. Individuals belong to these networks and form relationships with other individuals both within and outside of their networks. Mead points to a significant symbol, an object that is established by both the individual and others, that invokes a set of responses. The interactions and subsequent responses serve as the social behavior mechanisms that provide meaning and
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understanding (Mead, 1922). In sum, society affects an individual that is actively interpreting and creating meaning though symbols.
Herbert Blumer is influenced by the tradition of the Chicago Interactionism, the philosophical position of pragmatism, and Mead’s rejection of realism.
Knowledge, and consequently reality, is crafted through the action and interaction of self-reflective beings (Corbin & Strause, 2008). Blumer’s view of the positivist approach has put him under fire by many scholars in the social sciences. He believes that any results stemming from a quantitative, positivist-influenced methodology are not representative of the empirical world itself. They are fabrications and recreations of naturally occurring events. Blumer (1969) argues that we must examine the physical world and all that take place within it. Humans are capable of thinking, understanding, and reacting; therefore, they can interpret meaning based upon interacting with one another. The current study examines gay refugees/asylees interacting with one another, as well as with other individuals, in the physical space of the queer diaspora.
Blumer builds upon Mead’s (1934) theoretical foundation that the human being has a self and is subsequently able to be the object of his/her own actions.
People are capable of interpreting actions. Through this interpretation process actions come to have specific social significance. Using Mead’s (1934) theorizing as an underpinning, Blumer (1969) positions symbolic interactionism in three main tenets:
(1) people act towards things based on the meaning the thing holds for them; (2) the meanings of things are constructed through interaction with others; and (3) these 44
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meanings are modified through an interpretive process. Objects are physical, social, and abstract.
Blumer (1969), in short, states the world is very complex and there are no simple explanations for anything within it. On the contrary, experiences are the result of multiple influences combining and interacting in complex and frequently unpredictable ways (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Symbolic interaction, therefore, is the interaction that occurs between individuals within these situations. It considers how individuals interact with symbols such as language, meanings, body language, facial exchanges, and objects. Communication “is a symbolic process where reality is produced, maintained, and transformed” (Carey, 1989, p. 23). Symbolic interactionism is informed by two main concepts that Blumer (1969) refers to as “root images:” (1)
Human groups – individuals engaging in action either collectively or alone (which include culture and social structures) and (2) social interaction – interaction between individuals (which includes both non-symbolic and symbolic interaction). Symbolic interaction is also constructed of objects (physical, social, and abstract) and human motivations. Gay refugees bring with them cultural symbols from their primary socializations. They also encounter new symbols post-asylum. Examining how they interact socially within their human groups, assigning and reassigning meaning to various symbols, helps us understand the ways in which interactions help shape identity throughout the migration process.
In a similar fashion, James Carey focuses on how reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed through human communication as a symbolic 45
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process (Carey, 1989). For Carey, there is reality which is objective and different from the realities that individuals envelop themselves in. The latter realities are constantly being shaped and altered depending on our interactions entrenched in temporal and spatial factors. All three scholars position meaning as dynamic, fluid, and constructed within social interaction. They, along with their theoretical contributions to symbolic interactionism, form the bedrock form which social identity is built.
Social Identity
The overarching research question in this study is how gay refugees/asylees use communication, both mediated and interpersonal, to negotiate their identity. Social identity will be used as a lens to investigate how the subjugation and othering of
LGBTIs in their homeland might lead them to use various methods of communication for identity negotiation as they are discovering their sexuality, negotiating relationships with family, friends, and authorities among others. Jenkins’ (1994, 2008) specific articulation of social identity will also be used in a post-asylum context to examine how the gay refugees/asylees negotiate identity in relation to the social contexts they encounter in their new homeland. These social groups may include other
LGBTIs, other refugees, members of cultural groups (including their own), and civil/municipal entities (e.g. police, policy makers, social workers, etc.).
In order to better understand social identity, we must first conceptualize
“identity.” At its most fundamental, identity is “the human capacity – rooted in language – to know ‘who’s who’ (and hence ‘what’s what’)” (Jenkins, 2008, p. 5). As discussed above, Mead and Blumer highlight individuals’ abilities to interpret 46
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symbolic actions and assign meaning through social interactions – we are reflexive creatures. Identity is a symbolic representation of the self. Jenkins (2008) builds on this assumption arguing that all human identities are social identities, because identifying ourselves and/or others is a matter of meaning and meaning always involves interaction.
Jenkins (2000) maintains that rather than an object, identity is better understood as a process, which he terms identification – “the specification of what things are and what they are not, entailing at the same time some specification of their properties” (p. 7). Identification can occur between individuals, between collectivities, and between individuals and collectivities. Identification is directly linked to a contextual classification of self and others that is both interactional and social, and serves as “the basic cognitive mechanism that humans use to sort out themselves and their fellows, individually and collectively” (Jenkins, 2008, p. 13). Therefore, two interdependent processes are necessary for both classification and identification – similarities and differences.
Because an individual’s identities are always in flux, identification is a process that is never settled. Identity is a constant comparison and contrast of relationships between and amongst individuals and collectivities (Jenkins, 2008). The idea of including both similarity and difference, instead of only difference, is counter to the thinking of scholars mentioned earlier in Chapter Three, such as Butler (1990) and
Hall (1996), who assert difference against political heterogeneity and systemic
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hegemony18. Butler (1990) argues that differentiation and identification are two separate processes. She positions difference as a means of liberation from a subjective, homogeneous and conforming society. Hall (1996) denounces a traditional definition of identity as all-inclusive sameness, rather he establishes his foundation for identity on differences and completely disregards similarity altogether. I argue the tension between social identity and cultural studies theorists rests in the meanings one creates within social interactions. Emphatically, we as human beings are more alike than we are different. Interactions with various individuals and collectivities will make salient those characteristics that are most similar, as well as most different. Salience is contextual (Jenkins, 2008).
While there is value in diversity and difference, more explanatory potential is present in comparing both the similarities and differences between individuals and groups in order to “identify what may be universal and variable about human cultures, as well as to discover reasons why the variation exists” (Ilesanmi, 2009, p. 82). Also, specific to the current study, the gay refugees/asylees do not position themselves as
“we” because we are not “them,” which is highlighted in social identity theory (Tajfel
& Turner, 1979). In this population, particularly, there is not a battle between in-group and out-group from the perspective of the gay refugee/asylee. Rather, because their identities are intersectional, there is an on-going negotiation of self between many collectivities that, in specific moments, they deem as similar or different. Sometimes,
18 To maintain the power structure within the patriarchy, other groups including women, homosexuals, and ethnic minorities, must endure an institutionally enforced secondary status (Johnson, 2004). 48
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these identities are intertwined and at other times they are far removed. I go into more specific detail in Chapters Seven and Eight.
The condition of similarities and differences correspond to what Jenkins
(1994) calls the internal and external moments of the dialectic of identification. A constant back-and-forth exists between how individuals identify themselves (internally process of identification) and how others identify them (external process of categorization), resulting in social identity. Both group identification and categorization are interdependent and individuals are subjected to both. For the gay refugees/asylees, this means that each is subject to an internal identification process of themselves juxtaposed with an external categorization process by others. This social identification process is always in flux and, most importantly, contextual. Where they are spatially and temporally in the migration process will influence the process. In other words, social identification is dependent upon context and contingent upon both similarity and difference. The gay refugees/asylees will have a self-image, as well as a public image that they reconcile and internalize.
There is an entanglement of individual and collective identities that occurs within interaction, with the individual identity always positioned at the core of the initiative, yet not eclipsing the significance of the collective identity (Jenkins, 2008).
Where these two identities intersect and fuse is in society, referred to as “the human world.” This human world can be understood as within and between three distinct orders or social domains: the individual, the interaction, and the institutional. The individual order is distinguished as an internal, embodied process that occurs in the 49
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individual’s mind; the interaction order is distinguished between individuals and is constituted in relationships; and the institutional order is distinguished as a systemic pattern or organization made up of both individuals and collectives that establishes an accepted way of doing things (Jenkins 2000). These social domains are not mutually exclusive, rather they overlap completely and each is positioned within the others, creating a social environment. Identities, then, are constructed and reconstructed by
“embodied, socialized, individuals” interacting within various institutionalized contexts (p. 14). Specific to the current study, individual gay refugees/asylees interact within institutionalized contexts of country, social groups, relationships, legal systems,
NGOs, and diaspora among others.
These moments of internal and external moments of identification also influence how collectivities are socially constructed, resulting in collective identifications. Collectivities may be socially constructed as either groups, based on internal group identification, or as categories, based on external social categorization
(Jenkins, 1994). Therefore, collectivities are formed upon social identity. The ways in which gay refugees/asylees socially construct collectivities in their post-asylum host countries will also be based on this internal and external dialect. Social identity will aid in examining how the gay refugees/asylees individually, as well as collectively, negotiate identification in this particular space. Specific to the current study, collectivities may be formed on the basis of sexual orientation, as well as on culture or ethnicity. Intersectional relationships (which are formed on more than one of the preceding factors rather than just one, e.g. a group of gay, Muslim men who fled 50
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Syria) between the gay refugees/asylees and other individuals, or with entities such as
NGOs, is examined in detail to help provide context on how these relationships and interactions help create meaning in social identities. As stated above, the gay refugees/asylees flee from not only their governments, but also community, family, and friends. Their sexual orientation may be the most salient identification they employ, however the other facets of their intersectional identity cannot be completely ignored.
Important to note is that Jenkins (2008) also argues that identification is consequential, most often in the external categorization of others rather than in self- identification. Specifically, the power or authority to produce consequences must be taken into consideration. Identities applied to individuals from regimes of power hold consequences and produce identity effects (Jenkins, 2000), especially if the identifications are positive/normal or negative/abnormal (Jenkins, 1998). For example, gay may be categorized as abnormal and negative, whereas straight may be categorized as normal and positive in a given society or space.
This is particularly significant when considering gay refugees/asylees and how they may be categorized by governing bodies in both their native countries and countries of asylum. From their perspectives, they are categorized as deviant sodomites in the Middle East and dangerous refugees or malicious Muslims in the
United States. The consequence of being categorized as negative and abnormal is usually maltreatment for the gay refugees/ayslees. Furthermore, these categorizations are either internalized or rejected (Jenkins, 2000). The gay refugees/asylees are 51
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constantly negotiating their identity against external categorizations from those around them, dependent on temporal and spatial factors.
Theoretical Relevance
The previous chapters address globalization from a media perspective, however globalization has also had a significant impact on the study and recognition of identity. Jenkins (2008) contends that globalization has made individuals conscious of living in a global rather than a local context and positions three main corollaries of globalization in relation to identity: (1) globalization has made society more diverse;
(2) globalization encourages greater homogeneity; and (3) globalization has made it likely that more individuals will routinely confront others and dissimilar ways of doing things. These corollaries, however, are attached to post-modern scholarship and are in dire need of reworking. Jenkins calls for an understanding of identification by both its epistemology and its ongoing process of construction and contingency. Taking this into consideration, the current study examines the global journey of migration, from exile in the Middle East to asylum in San Francisco, and how communication influences identity negotiation. Specifically, it considers the localized social space of post-asylum life in the San Francisco queer diaspora and how it interrelates to other occurrences along the temporal and spatial continuum of global migration.
The major strength of social identity is that it can be applied equally and evocatively to both individuals and collectivities (Jenkins, 2000). I chose Jenkins’
(1994, 2008) conceptualization of social identity over other theories of identity because it examines both similarity and difference, as opposed to scholars such as 52
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Butler (1993, 2013) and Hall (1990, 1996) that only look at difference. Social Identity is well suited to investigate how gay refugees/asylees negotiate their identity within social environments. Employing social identity as a theoretical lens will allow for a holistic understanding of how communication, both mediated and interpersonal, is incorporated in the phenomenology (lived experiences) of gay refugees/asylees in the migration process. These lived experiences include the interactions that they utilize to construct and maintain meaning in their identity negotiation process. How they view themselves, and how others view them, at different times and in different spaces affect how the gay refugees/asylees identify.
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CHAPTER V
RESEARCH QUESTIONS & METHOD
The literature gathered from the preceding chapters, coupled with the theoretical lens of social identity, was utilized to craft seven research questions which guided the current study. The following chapter outlines the assumptions behind the selected questions, as well as provides a detailed explication of the methodology used to investigate and address those questions.
Research Questions
Migrants typically use a combination of traditional and new media in their host country to help shape one or more dimensions of their identities (Hepp, Bozdag, &
Suna, 2012). From a queer perspective on identity, the subject performs his/her subjectivity in accord with given discursive norms through the repetitive citation of the signifier of that identity (Butler, 1993). In this case communication (mediated and interpersonal) serves as a source of signifiers. Also, in regards to social identity, previous research has found that members of an in-group heavily rely on in-group traditional media for information (Morton & Duck, 2000). When those traditional media are censored or do not include information or content geared toward LGBTIs, members may then gravitate toward digital media (Slater, 2007). Finally, membership in a group, specifically gay refugees/asylees in this study, influences which social media platforms individuals utilize (Chong, Zhang, Mak, & Pang, 2015). Therefore, the current study seeks to examine how this gay refugee/asylee population utilizes
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communication in the form of traditional media and digital media to negotiate identity.
Media effects do not account for 100% of influence in an individual’s identity formation. There are also elements of interpersonal contact and discourse that individuals encounter on a daily basis. Therefore, I raise the following research questions:
RQ1: How do gay refugees/asylum seekers use communication, both
mediated and interpersonal, to negotiate their identity pre-asylum?
RQ2: How do gay refugees/asylum seekers use communication, both
mediated and interpersonal, to negotiate their identity post-asylum?
RQ3: Where do mediated and interpersonal communication interact,
and where do they diverge, in the process of gay refugee/asylee identity
negotiation?
Limited English language proficiency is a major hurdle for successful integration in a host country for some immigrants and refugees. Previous research has found that refugee status does not facilitate English language learning post-asylum, but rather the characteristics of an individual national origin group (Fennelly & Palasz,
2003). A small number of LGBTI refugees possess basic, English skills and are computer literate (FMR, 2013). Because of this, LGBTI refugees often research other countries in an effort to seek out safe havens and potential places of asylum. LGBTI refugees need locations with supportive legal environment, established LGBT communities, and critical masses of other refugees (FMR, 2013). Furthermore, ethnicity and race also influence language preference in media; members of a social 55
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group will utilize identity-based communication to reinforce their identity in said group (Salzman, 2014). This is not to say that these individuals do not know or speak
English, but rather that they have a preference of language to consume media in.
Uncertainties exist in how English and computer literacy affect LGBTI refugees’, who are frequently marginalized from their ethnic and cultural groups, communication endeavors.
RQ4: How does English literacy influence gay refugees/asylum
seekers’ level of communication (mediated/interpersonal) pre- and
post-asylum?
RQ5: How does computer literacy influence gay refugees/asylum
seekers’ level of communication (mediated/interpersonal) pre- and
post-asylum?
LGBTI asylum-specific NGOs train staff and volunteers who understand and identify with this distinctive group of refugees. A recent study (Rodriguez, 2016) found LGBTI asylum-specific NGOs used social media to disseminate information to and encourage behaviors from stakeholders. However, they did not utilize it to interact with LGBTI refugees. Little is known about how the NGOs interact with potential clients. This may be due to security reasons, however no rationale is given in academic literature, therefore more research is warranted.
RQ6: How do LGBTI refugee/asylum seeker-focused NGOs utilize
social media to communicate with LGBTI refugees and asylum
seekers? 56
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Lesbian/gay identity often follows a path similar to ethnic minority identity and tends to operate with both a cultural separatist stance and “an assimilationist one by the provision of material which directly posits symbolic components coded as cultural and community material” (Cover, 2002, p. 112). Assimilationist material comes in the form of information that will assist marginalized populations accommodate in a region and attempt to establish social and economic equality
(Riggins, 1992). Most LGBTI refugees do not arrive with families or friends. Fleeing violence from relatives, community members, and/or police, they have no relational ties when arriving and they may remain segregated from those who share the same country of origin (ORAM, 2011).
RQ7: How do gay refugees/asylum seekers use communication and
media to find and engage “queer diasporas” in the host country of
asylum?
The research questions include specific inquiry targeted at pre-asylum computer use and English fluency, queer diaspora, and digital media use. There are also very broad inquiries into identification and identity negotiation that endeavor to capture the nuances and phenomenology of the gay refugees/asylum seekers.
Responses to all of these questions will help address the overarching research question in this study, how gay refugees use communication to negotiate their identity post- asylum.
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Methodology
The current study employs interviews, focused ethnography, and observation.
The research questions, coupled with theory, motived my methodological tactics.
Below I introduce each methodology and provide contextual detail such as target population, procedures, and background information where applicable. First, I will explain my choice of qualitative methodology for the current study and provide an explication of the emic and etic structure of the research.
My methodological, as well as my theoretical, approach is informed by the interpretive/constructive paradigm19. The interpretive/constructive approach, influenced by Mead, Blumer, Geertz, and Carey, is positioned for in-depth and nuanced inquiry. Researchers working within this paradigm recognize one principal reality, as well as many other individually constructed social realities (how individuals view and experience the world) which are crafted through social interaction (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2008). My goal is to understand the social realities shaped by gay refugees/asylees living in the queer diaspora.
Research methods and designs must be judged on the basis of what they can accomplish (Karasz & Singelis, 2009), and I believe qualitative methodology is best suited to address my research questions. Qualitative inquiry can be applied not only as a means of understanding the lived experiences of respondents (Emerson, Fretz &
19 One of four central communication paradigms which also include positivist, post-positivist, and critical-cultural. The paradigms represent ways of thinking about reality and inform a researcher’s epistemological and ontological positions, which ultimately influence both theory and methods (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008). 58
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Shaw, 2011; Mohr & Rawlings, 2010), but also as a means to empower, emancipate, and represent marginalized populations (Liamputtong, 2010). Qualitative methodology is flexible and focused on interpretation, therefore it is best suited to addressing the fluid and unpredictable nature of human beings (Liamputtong, 2010), whereas quantitative research is best utilized for examining the relationships between variables and establishing statistical significance, correlation and/or causation (Hamer &
Collinson, 2014).
Qualitative research is fluid and dynamic and therefore able to capture rich and
“thick descriptions” of phenomena of interest (Geertz, 1973). The researcher is a tool of interpretation, so he/she must be well informed in both the academic and pragmatic experiences of the phenomena under study. Qualitative work is inherently subjective, which is seen as a drawback to some. Therefore, proper training and well-researched inquiry is a necessity. The goal of a qualitative researcher is to become neutrally moral and objective and, because of his or her academic rigor, to tell the facts as they are
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2008). Objectivity and neutrality, however, are not easy to achieve. Therefore, Christians (2007) argues cultural continuity should be the master norm for qualitative research, research which serves as a “catalyst for critical consciousness” (p. 437). Cultural continuity moves inquiry from quantitative
“canonical, monocultural ethics of abstraction and rationalism” into qualitative narrative, cultural, and social experiences (p. 438). Research is then conducted in sociocultural spaces and takes into consideration intercultural ethics.
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This concept of cultural continuity fits well with the current study because it diminishes a preconceived standard of ethics and objectivity, arguably of Western influence. “Continuity undercuts the modernization schemes devised by transnational companies or colonial powers to strengthen their hegemony” (Christians, 2007, p.
441). It allows for more focused research on the current and situated experiences of
Middle Eastern gay refugees/asylees living in the Bay Area of California. It considers the localized, while still taking into account more macro influences such as migration, native culture, persecution, and other intersectional lived experiences. Considering the interactions of communication in a holistic nature will aid in understanding how meaning is ascribed to various elements of the individual’s identity.
Etic and Emic
The current study will apply the etic approach to the holistic journey of the gay refugee/asylum seeker, whereas the emic approach is applied to the local, lived experiences post-asylum in the Bay Area. An emic approach is taken by researchers who work comprehensively within a single culture for the purpose of discovering and understanding indigenous phenomena, whereas an etic approach is taken by researchers who work comprehensively across cultures for the purpose of producing generalizations about human behavior (Berry, 1989). According to Pike (1967), the value of an emic approach is threefold: (1) it allows for a holistic understanding of the way in which a language or culture is constructed; (2) it aids in the process of understanding individuals in their daily lives; (3) it “provides the only basis upon which science of behavior can be expected to make some of its greatest progress” (p. 60
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724). The value of an etic approach is fourfold: (1) it provides a wide-ranging perspective and training in regards to different events around the world, so that similarities and differences can be recognized; (2) researchers can acquire techniques for recording differing phenomena; (3) an etic approach is the only point of entry; and
(4) allows for a researcher to meet practical demands, such as time constraints and financial limitations.
Three questions posed by Murdock and White (1969) can help explicate the etic and emic assessments of any research project: (1) what are the foci of the study;
(2) what are the issues of coherence or de-coherence within the foci studied; (3) how do these issues apply between foci? In the following section I will address these questions and demonstrate how my study incorporates both an etic and emic approach.
The two approaches do not form a perfect dichotomy, yet both are valuable to cross- cultural research, and neither is more important than the other (Pike, 1967). I consider them complementary in this case. Ultimately, I am looking at identity negotiation as dependent upon communication and contingent upon the classification of oneself and others into social categories or groups.
The interview questions examine the role of communication in both pre- and post-asylum context, which helps us better understand the migration process from exile in the Middle East to asylum in the Bay Area queer diaspora. The emic approach places emphasis at the individual level in both these locations and then compares them to one another, making the study cross-cultural. Research cannot be “cultural” without an emic perspective, nor “cross” without an etic perspective (Berry, 1989). The emic 61
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dimension involves examining each gay refugees/asylum seeker at an individual level, focusing on communication and identity negotiation. This emic approach intends to yield a focused, phenomenological, and cultural understanding by uncovering the context of their daily lives and providing a basis upon which behavior can be expected
(Pike, 1967). By considering both pre- and post-asylum spaces in a larger, macro system of migration, an etic approach is established, which allows for a more holistic and nuanced interpretation of the post-asylum identity negotiation process.
Interviews
An interview is a deep and purposeful conversation between two people
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2008). In academia, interviews occur between a researcher and a subject (interviewer and interviewee, respectively), whereby the researcher is able to harvest data directly from the individual. There are three types of interviews: (1) structured, (2) semi-structured, and (3) unstructured. In a structured interview all of the questions are asked in the exact same order to each interviewee, without deviation.
In a semi-structured interview, the same questions are asked to each individual, however they can be arranged differently and the interviewer can ask follow-up questions. In an unstructured interview, there is no set organization to the questions and the interview is more conversation-like. The unstructured interview is the most typical type of interview used in qualitative inquiry. The current study employs unstructured interviews.
The potential abundance of direct information is the main benefit of interviews, and the structure fluid, allowing the researcher to probe, follow-up, and 62
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ask for clarification. The drawbacks include the lengthy transcription process, the cost, the possibility of acquiescence bias, nonresponse, interview training/skill, and the possibility that the interviewee may not feel comfortable answering questions in person.
Interviews were utilized to collect data from LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers and NGO employees who were charged with communication endeavors within the organization. In both cases, all interviews were unstructured, however a list of questions was referenced to guide the process. This allowed me to probe and ask follow-up questions, while still maintaining an organic and extemporaneous flow of the interview.
LGBTI Refugee/Asylee Participants
The target population for LGBTI refugees/asylum participants are gay males who are fleeing persecution based on sexual orientation and who have taken asylum in the United States. Because there was no feasible way for me to find and interview
LGBTI refugees in their native homeland within the parameters of this study, all participants were located in North America. In sum, there were three inclusionary criteria for participants: (1) participants must be physically located in the United
States; (2) participants must be fleeing persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity; and (3) participants must have been granted asylum, or be in the process of applying for asylum, in the United States. A purposive sample of gay refugees/asylees was gathered using snowball sampling.
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Snowball sampling takes advantage of the social networks of those gay refugees and asylum seekers whom I could identify through recruiting methods such as emails and public posts, who in turn could provide me with escalating leads to potential participants (Biernacki & Waldorf, 1981). Snowball sampling is well suited for this study due to its ability to aid the researcher in making inferences about a population that is difficult to enumerate and is socially stigmatized (Snijders, 1992;
Faugier & Sergeant, 1997). Snowball sampling has been found to effectively enable access to previously secreted populations, be economically efficient, and produce rich and comprehensive results in relatively quick time (Atkinson & Flint, 2001). The sampling method has also been successfully utilized in prior research studying
LGBTIs (Eliason, Dibble & Robertson, 2011; McCormack , 2014) and refugee populations (Berthold, et al., 2014; Sulaiman-Hill & Thompson, 2011). As a result of snowball sampling, the subsequent sample was comprised solely of Middle Eastern gay males.
Pseudonyms were assigned to all of the interviewees. One interviewee selected his pseudonym. I assigned the other members of the sample pseudonyms. I first researched names that were congruent to the nationality of each interviewee, I then contacted my original informant, Reza, and asked him to verify that the names were culturally sound and represented each nationality correctly.
One of the organizations allowed me to interview two gay refugees/asylees
(Marwan from Syria and Mahdi from Iran). The organization also gave me the contact information for Reza, an Iranian refugee who was well connected with the local 64
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Middle Eastern LGBTI population. He was able to refer me to two other individuals in a local group who allowed me to shadow them for a day and participate in their group activities (which I explain further in the focused ethnography section below). I also utilized the gay social app GROWLr20 and found two other individuals willing to sit for interviews (Nassim from Lebanon and Ibrahim who was born in Iraq, but grew up in Dubai). A colleague of mine was also able to refer me to a Saudi Arabian student he knew, who in turn introduced me to another participant, Atif from Saudi Arabia.
Table 6.1
LGBTI Refugees/Asylees Interviewed Name Native Country Asylum Status Ibrahim Iraq Applied Mahdi Iran Granted Reza Iran Granted Marwan Syria Granted Nassim Lebanon Granted Atif Saudi Arabia Applied Note. (N = 6) Each individual consented to being recorded. Pseudonyms were assigned to maintain anonymity.
Through recruitment and snowball sampling I was able to interview six gay refugees/asylees from the Middle East, all of who were now living in California (see
Table 1). Some scholars have argued that sample size is dependent upon saturation; the researcher continues to interview until patterns of data begin repeating themselves
(Morse, 2000). Other scholars believe that in qualitative research there is no adequate predetermined number, but rather that sample size is a matter of judgment, experience
20 GROWLr is a geosocial networking application (GSN) that can be downloaded to mobile phones and enables users to find others in close proximity with one another for social interactions. GROWLr is primarily utilized by gay men, bisexual men, and men who have sex with other men; users tend to attract “bears” and “jocks.” 65
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and is relative to the quality of information, research method, and ultimate intention of the study (Sandelowski, 1995). My sample size satisfies both approaches. Also, due to its precarious position, this is a difficult population to access, limiting the numbers of participants.
Procedures
I conducted face-to-face in-depth interviews with each LGBTI refugee/asylee.
Each interview lasted approximately one hour and was conducted in English. Two interviews were conducted in the offices of an organization, two were conducted in a hotel room at a desk, one was conducted in a coffee shop, and one was conducted in the living room of the interviewee’s friend. As mentioned above, each interview was unstructured – open ended questions that are in-depth purposeful conversations aimed at eliciting answers to complex issues, emotions, cultural concerns and lived experiences (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008). Each respondent was interviewed about his migration, asylum seeking, English skills, computer literacy, and lived experiences in his native country and host country of asylum Additionally, media consumption (both traditional and digital) in both his native and host country of asylum, interpersonal interactions and discourse, and the use of communication and media in discovering and engaging with queer communities was also queried (see Appendix A).
The interviews were recorded on an audio recorder; no names or identifiers were used. I sent the audio to TranscribeMe, an academic transcription company, transcribed, and then received the transcriptions within a week. I performed a textual analysis on the transcriptions to find themes and expressive responses that inductively 66
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materialized (see Appendix C). The themes were used to address the research questions and better explain the nuances of participants’ identity negotiation in regards to communication and media.
Table 6.2
LGBTI Refugee-Focused NGO/Organization Employees Interviewed Organization Job Title City ORAM Director San Francisco ORAM Communications San Francisco OutRight Action Communications New York City OutRight Action Digital Communications New York City Jewish Family Services Director Berkeley Jewish Family Services Refugee Coordinator Berkeley Seattle Counseling Services Program Director Seattle Note. (N = 7) Each individual consented to being recorded. Pseudonyms were assigned to maintain anonymity.
NGO Participants
Respondents were comprised of seven individuals who worked at one of four organizations that work with LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. Two individuals from the Organization for Refugee and Migration (ORAM) were interviewed in San
Francisco, CA; two individuals from Outright Action International (OAI) in New
York City, NY; two individuals from Jewish Family and Community Services East
Bay (JFCS) located in Berkeley, CA; and one individual from Seattle Counseling
Services (SCS) located in Seattle, WA (see Table 2). There were two inclusionary criteria: participants had to be employees or volunteers for the organization, and participants’ responsibilities had to include making decisions about communication
(legacy, digital, or both) efforts, or implementing the decisions through
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communication efforts. I sent emails and recruited specific individuals who met both criteria; therefore a purposive sample was utilized.
The NGOs
The Organization for Refugee and Migration (ORAM) is an international organization founded in 2008 that influences institutional change to help foster a more receptive and tolerant climate, as well as humane policies, for LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. The goal of ORAM is to “break down systemic barriers to their safety and shelter” (ORAM, 2006). The organization is a partner of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the U.S. State Department. ORAM works directly with LGBTI refugees/asylum seekers by providing legal counseling and representation, as well as providing education and training for volunteers/advocates. Finally, the organization researches and documents the severe abuses and subjection of LGBTIs world-wide and translates them into reports and advocacy efforts.
OutRight Action International (OAI), formally known as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission until September of 2015, has fought against injustices and persecution of LGBTIs for over 25 years. OAI’s website states that the organization strives “for a world in which LGBTIQ individuals can live with dignity, achieve freedom and justice and are unencumbered by prejudice and discrimination to pursue their ambitions, wherever they are” (OutRight, 2015). OAI partners directly with activists in the southern hemisphere to help foster effective LGBTI advocacy,
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conducts training for partners and activists, and helps monitor and document discriminatory and life-threatening conditions that LGBTIs face worldwide.
Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay (JFCS) emphasizes inclusiveness and community. Formerly known as the Daughters of Israel Relief
Society and the Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the East Bay, the organization has been serving the Bay Area since 1877. JFCS provides a home care program, assists Holocaust survivors, and aids in refugee resettlement, among other services.
Specific to LGBT refugees/asylum seekers, the organization aids in transitional housing and enrollment in benefits programs; provides referrals and counseling; assists in navigating the health care system; supports individuals in finding educational and vocational resources; promotes outreach to LGBT social and cultural groups; and fosters volunteer support with social integration, life skills and learning English.
JFCS’s website states that most of the LGBT refugees they help are in their early twenties and come from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the former Soviet
Union (JFCS, 2016).
Seattle Counseling Service (SCS) has served the LGBTQ population of the
Seattle-King County area as a community based organization for over 45 years. The organization offers a sliding fee scale and accepts Medicaid and numerous insurance plans, making its services accessible to all. SCS boasts many services including counseling, education, support groups, and immigrant outreach, among others. The organization hosts a behavioral health programs known as the LGBTQ Immigrant,
Refugee & Undocumented Outreach Project, which documents the stories of LGBTQ 69
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immigrants and refugees. In addition, the project provides training on the needs of
LGBTQs to organizations that work at an international level. Because of its success, the organization has also been chosen to partner with AsylumConnect and make
Seattle the pilot city for a national database that links LGBTQ refuges and asylum- seekers with crucial resources (SCS, 2016).
Procedures
I visited all four organizations between February 2, 2016 and March 23, 2016 and conducted face-to-face interviews with each respondent in their respective offices.
At ORAM and OAI, I also observed the day-to-day functions, while taking field notes.
Just as with the gay refugee/asylee procedure, the interviews were unstructured and recorded on an audio recorder. Each interview lasted approximately one hour and was conducted in English. The interview questions focused on communication efforts on behalf of the organization, legacy and social media endeavors, missions and goals of the organization, and personal reasons for working at the NGO, among others (see
Appendix B).
As with the asylee interviews, I sent audio files to TranscribeMe and received the transcription documents back within a week. A textual analysis was then performed on the transcriptions to find themes and expressive responses that inductively materialize (see Appendix C). The themes were used to answer the research questions and obtain a better understanding of how LGBTI refugee-focused organizations used communication and media to correspond with LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. 70
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Focused Ethnography
As stated above, my methodological and theoretical choices are influenced by symbolic interaction. Blumer’s (1969) contribution to methodology is the conceptualization of exploration and inspection. He argues that to explore is to immerse oneself in the real world and collect data, whereas inspection is reflecting on the data collected and analyzing it with academic rigor (Blumer, 1969). One of his central criticisms is that scholars too often study and speak as if they represent groups they have no familiarity with. He critiques quantitative methods for not actually and actively engaging with the empirical world as it is experienced by those who actually live in it. I traveled to San Francisco and actively engaged with gay refugees/asylees and experienced the lives they were living firsthand in the queer diaspora.
The current study employs Hubert Knoblauch’s (2005) concept of focused ethnography to frame and validate the timeframe of one long weekend in San
Francisco as viable data. Focused ethnography is a distinctive kind of sociological ethnography, which complements and does not directly oppose conventional ethnography. Knoblauch states the strategy is “widely used particularly in the investigation of research fields specific to contemporary society which is socially and culturally highly differentiated and fragmented” (2005, par. 2). Focused ethnography is “typified by short-term or absent field visits, an interest in a specific research question, a researcher with insider or background knowledge of the cultural group, and intensive methods of data collection and recording, such as video or audio-taping”
(Wall, 2015, para. 10) 71
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Focused ethnography places emphasis on communicative activities and experiences of communication, rather than on social groups or fields (Knoblauch,
2005). Therefore, the methodology is well-suited for application to the current study.
While in San Francisco, I observed the activities of ORAM for ten days and attended many events with its employees and publics. I utilized my iPhone to take notes, record sound bites/reminders, and take pictures (where appropriate). One major event I attended with ORAM was a fundraiser for a local group named Southwest Asian &
North African Bay Area Queers (SWANABAQ), which was held on a Saturday afternoon. My contact Reza attended and introduced me to other individuals in the group. He and three others (Hassan, Fathi and Oleksander) asked me to join them after the event for a night out in the Castro, an LGBTI neighborhood of San Francisco. The first half of my focused ethnography encompasses the SWANABAQ event and the night in the Castro.
The second half of my focused ethnography takes place at a bear21 bar outside of the Castro, where I observed interactions among gay refugees/asylees and other gay patrons at the bar. One of the individuals I met following the SWANABAQ event,
Omari from Egypt, invited me to The Eagle the following day (Sunday). While at the bear bar I was able to interact with Omari and other gay individuals, including his gay
Egyptian friend Ammon. The focused ethnography gave me an inside perspective on how gay refugees/asylees assigned and reassigned meaning to their post-asylum
21 The term bear emerged in the gay male community during the 1980s and was made popular in the San Francisco bear culture (Manley, Levitt, & Mosher, 2007). Bears are usually described in their physical attributes such as body hair, beards, stocky build, hyper masculine dress, and resemble heterosexual men more than the typical gay stereotypes (Wright, 1997). 72
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culture. Field notes taken during the focused ethnography, coupled with written reflections of the events, were textually analyzed to provide a “thick description” of the cultural context and implications of the observed interaction.
According to Clifford Geertz (1973), thick description includes detailed explication of a culture, its context, and those interacting within in it. A researcher utilizes all five senses and immerses himself/herself into the world. The researcher also describes everything he/she feels and how he/she reacts. Our accounts of reality are embedded in what other people perceive as reality. There are many truths and we as researchers must find out how they are manifested through culture, a culture that is dynamic and fluid. Meaning, therefore, is created and shaped by our interactions in the field. The current study pursues this approach as much as possible within the strict constraint of time and funding.
Culture is both symbolic and semiotic; it’s about generating meaning (Geertz,
1973). Culture is interpretive and always in search of meaning. Geertz focuses on the active participation of researchers conducting fieldwork. Geertz introduces thick description and ethnography. He maintains that researchers should immerse themselves in the field of study in order to better make sense of the culture of the space, time, and inhabitants. He argued that we as researchers are motivated to experience the phenomenology of those we study, and describe it. His epistemology is influenced by description and interpretation. Geertz advises researchers to write, write, and write and then make sense of what is written – advice that I followed. He argues that ethnography and fieldwork are more than just a method of writing and coding, it’s 73
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about “thick description.” Culture is contextual and something that can be thickly described. Culture is treated as a symbolic system “by isolating elements, specifying the internal relationships among those elements and then characterizing the whole system in some general way – according to the core symbols around which it is organized” (Geertz, 1973, p. 17). I endeavored to thickly describe the culture of the
Castro and the LGBTIs interacting within it.
Measurement
Measurement is the process of “observing and recording observations that are collected as part of a research effort” (Trochim, 2006, par 1). Below I explicate the issues of functional equivalence, reliability, validity, and ethics as they relate to the current study.
Functional Equivalence
Homosexuality in the refugees and asylum seekers serves as functional equivalence for the survey. Goldschmidt (1966) states that functional equivalence exists when a behavior in question has “developed in response to a problem shared by two or more cultural groups, even though the behavior in one society does not appear to be similar to its counterpart in another society” (p. 726). The behavior at issue here is identity formation based on sexuality, which produces attitudes that in turn affect outward behaviors and verbalizations that correspond to the in-group (in this case
LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution). For the organizational element of this study, the role of LGBTI refugee-focused advocacy will serve as the functional equivalence. 74
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The current study does not intend to thoroughly define or explain a culture, but rather to capture the roles of culture in the phenomenon at issue (Ilesanmi, 2009), and culture’s influence on communication and identity negotiation. I investigated how culture affected the ways in which gay refugees and asylum seekers negotiated their identity. Culture can take a multitude of forms and there is no one overall, encompassing definition that is assumed in any kind of research, regardless of discipline (Carey, 1989). Contemporary scholarship positions culture as “both a device for stabilizing social semiosis and paradoxically, as a semiotically destabilized term suggesting everything from large-scale social formations underlying political beliefs, tendencies, or shifts to enclaves of fandom, preferably of underground cultural forms”
(Bérubé, 2006).
Culture can be defined in terms of structure, function, process, and power
(Hecht, Balwin, & Faulkner, 2006). It is this deduction of culture, from abstract to something concrete and measureable, that insures its continued importance, rather than undermining it (Geertz, 1973). For the purpose of current study I am electing to utilize both a power definition and a process definition of culture. Culture can be viewed as power and ideology, not just in terms of meaning, but also as a method of control
(Hecht, Balwin, & Faulkner, 2006). If the dominant culture cultivates a homophobic and homo-violent culture, then LGBTI individuals will seek to migrate toward more accepting and tolerant regions. Culture as power, in tandem with homosexuality, will also serve as functional equivalency for all the research questions and establish, using social identity theory, why LGBTIs are marginalized and oppressed in their homeland. 75
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To define culture as a process, the researcher must place emphasis on how culture operates, i.e. change, development, practices, and procedures (Hecht, Balwin,
& Faulkner, 2006). According to Street (1993), a process definition of culture can suggest a social constructionist or symbolic interactionist perspective. In media effect research, this is showcased in media technology. As users interact with one another, they constantly reconfigure the culture in which they communicate. This culture is further recreated as users are able to share, comment, and create content online
(Eveland, 2003). Culture, as a process, will be used to investigate how LGBTIs communicate with other individuals, NGOs, supranational organizations, and other entities. Communication will take place via mediated and interpersonal methods
(further explicated below).
Reliability and Validity
A major concern for the current study, as in all studies, was the introduction of measurement bias, such as social desirability, administration mode and sensitivity, non-equivalence among variables, and respondent fatigue (Blair & Piccinino, 2005).
In order to reduce the amount of bias introduced, I included an option at the beginning of the interview to identify and address any concerns that the interviewee may deem sensitive in nature. I also kept the interview time to a maximum of 60 minutes.
A method of ensuring reliability is through the interviewees/respondents themselves. Because qualitative research is an inductive process and my research directly harvested information from the interviewees, I acquired each individual’s self- report of their actual lived experience. The resulting qualitative data is therefore 76
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reliable because it “documents the world from the point of view of the people…rather than presenting it from the perspective of the researcher” (Hammersley, 1992, p. 45).
Although there may still be subjective influence from the analysis, I took every precaution to minimize bias.
Reflexivity is also a means of establishing validity in which a researcher primarily focuses on a culture and uses his/her own experiences in the culture to reflect more deeply on him/herself and look more profoundly at the interactions of others (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). At key points in the data collection process, analysis, and write up I reflected on my position as researcher in order to ensure I was on task, asking the right questions, maintaining the integrity of the respondent’s answers, and also to consider whether I was taking into account all aspects of the spatial and temporal connotations.
Ethics
I understand that this population has been ostracized, subjugated, and threatened with social isolation, violence, incarceration, and even death; therefore it is sensitive and deserving of virtuous, responsible research ethics. I believe that social scientists have a moral obligation to conduct ethically empathetic and culturally competent research (Liamputtong, 2010). Just as I would with any other population, I strived to be sympathetic, honorable and confidential in my research endeavors.
The power dynamic between me as the researcher and the respondents is something else I considered carefully and continuously reflected on. Situatedness, or positionality as some scholars refer to it, is significant in the development of social 77
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knowledge, specifically in the implication and magnitude of structured inequality
(Lempert, 2007). Even though I am a member of the LGBTI community, I have not been subjected to the degradations and threats that my respondents have. Also, my privilege in the academy, coupled with my experience in higher education and its influence on my perspectives, is something I contemplated throughout the research process. My job as a researcher dictates that I build upon academic knowledge and contribute to theory method. I must also ensure that the resulting body of knowledge created by my research reflects the variance and interactive nature of the reality being studied, while at the same time representing the respondents. Reflexivity helps keep ethical considerations of power in balance.
A common challenge in research is that of the Pygmalion effect, the tendency for a researcher to see what they expect to see or to find what they expect to find
(Ellison, 2015). My situatedness as a Western, cisgender male researcher undoubtedly guided my intuition in many aspects of this study. By employing a mix of inductive emic and etic approaches that investigate both similarities and differences of culture and individuals, I was able to reduce the amount of bias and researcher error (Ofori-
Dankwa & Ricks, 2000). In other words, by looking at both the similarities and differences I was be able to capture a more holistic view of the phenomena without anticipating results that are affected solely by similarities or solely by differences.
Institutional Review Board approval is needed for all research conducted on human subjects at Texas Tech University and was granted for the current study on
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February 2, 2016. A copy of the approval letter can be found in Appendix E. All research was conducted according to professional academic standards.
Operationalization
The textual analysis employed open, inductive coding that followed Owen’s
(1984) qualitative method guidelines for distinguishing themes: repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness. Repetition is defined as the reiteration of the same authentic words, phrases, or sentences within and across the transcribed discourse, recurrence as the reiteration of similar ideas or underlying meanings in the transcribed discourse, and forcefulness as vocal inflection, shifts in volume, or deliberate pauses which serve to emphasize any of the aforementioned communication in the transcriptions (Hotta &
Ting-Toomey, 2013). Below I provide conceptualizations and operationalizations of five of the main measurements utilized in the study.
Identity/Identification
I adopt Jenkins (2008) conceptualization of both identity and identification.
Identity is “our way of understanding who we are and who other people are, and, reciprocally, other people’s understanding of themselves and of others” (p. 18).
Identification is the process of how individuals come to establish identity and serves as
“the systematic establishment and signification between individuals, between collectivities, and between individuals and collectivities, of relationships of similarity and difference” (p. 18). It synthesizes relationships of similarity and difference, is always negotiable, and never fixed. This process of identification is always a matter of meaning, and as mentioned in Chapter Four, meaning always involves interaction. I 79
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use the phrase “negotiation” to reflect this interactive and fluid process. I also embrace
Jenkins’ (2008) argument that because identity constitutes meaning through interaction within a social space, all identities are innately social and to add the word
“social” to identity is redundant. I will only utilize the words “identity” and
“identification” in the remainder of the study with the assumption that they imply the social and that they are one in the same.
Of important note, not all LGBTIs are similar and not all are looking to identify with a Western identity of “gay” or “homosexual.” Also, LGBTIs may experience a queer diasporic identity is very different from an identity manifested by heterosexual migrants. I also must consider the identity of being a refugee, leaving their homeland by choice or by force. Each individual is intersectional and has many internal and external factors influencing his identity.
The questions asked in the interview process are aimed at exploring how the gay refugee/asylee identifies himself in relation to how he categorizes others, while also considering how others categorize him. As mentioned above, through a process of identification, individuals internalize how they categorize others and how others categorize them (Jenkins, 2008). Identification is a means of “coping with the divisions within society and as a means of positioning oneself within and apart from the cultural world (Henderson, Cheney, & Weaver, 2015, p. 15). Because identification is fluid, rather than fixed, I recognize that the context of their spatial and temporal states within the migration process will influence how they negotiate their identity (Hall, 1969). Therefore, I asked about media and communication pre- and 80
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post-asylum. I am eager to understand what words and concepts that we as academics can adopt into our lexicon and pragmatic approaches without forcing respondents into pre-conceived categories or labels?
Communication
In the current study I employ a process definition of communication: “the sequences of interaction and interpretation that render meanings and outcomes both unpredictable and emergent” (Emerson, Fretz & Shaw, 2011, p. 2). To study communication is to examine the authentic social process by which symbolic forms are crafted, held and used (Carey, 1988). Carey grouped communication into two views, the transmission and ritual. A transmission view of communication positions communication as imparting information from one object to another. In traditional social scientific communication theory we see this as transmitting a message from a producer to a receiver thorough a mediating device (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). Carey roots the transmission view of communication in religious endeavors of the past when churches disseminate information about Christianity to various parts of the world. By contrast, a ritual view of communication positions communication as a shared experience among a group of people. It is “directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs” (Carey, 1988, p. 20).
Ritualistic views of communication are the oldest forms of communication.
Both transmission and ritualistic views of communication are taken into consideration for the current study. In general, mediated communication falls into the 81
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category of transmission, whereas interpersonal communication coincides with ritualistic. Overall, communication is viewed as a process through which meaning is shaped and altered within temporal, spatial, and technological limitations. Specific to the current study, gay refugees/asylees identity may be influenced by their communication with others. Most of these individuals move from an environment of rejection, isolation, and persecution to one of acceptance, empathy, and inclusion. The current study considers how gay refugees/asylees use communication as an instrument of creating and modifying meaning. Particularly, it examines how communication shapes meaning ascribed to their sexual orientation and identity.
Organizational Communication
Loosely defined, organizational communication is “a process through which meaning is created, negotiated, and managed” within institutional parameters (Cheney
& Christensen, 2001). Consistent communication is key to the organization’s ability to self-sustain and convey a coherent sense of “self” in order to support both internal and external credibility and legitimacy (Cheney & Christensen, 2001).
Of specific interest to the current study are the roles of organizational communication in issue management, or “corporate advocacy” as it is sometimes referred to. The concept gained interest and acceptance in the late 1970s and centers on the role strategic communication plays between organizations and larger society
(Summer et al., 1990). At its inception, the concept focused primarily on minimizing surprise crises and profit management (Arrington & Sawaya, 1984; Wartick & Rude,
1986). Today it is focused as more of an active process of directly shaping and 82
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managing an organization’s environment and responding to issues as they occur in two ways: “narrowly in which public, or social, issues are the primary focus; and broadly, in which strategic issues and the strategic management process are the focus of attention22” (Carroll, & Buchholtz, 2014, p. 149).
One way of accomplishing this is by communicating with external publics and shaping their attitudes and beliefs about, and actions toward, the organization itself or its interests (Ewing, 1987). The current study is concerned with external communication of the NGOs and adopts Cheney & Christensen’s ( 2001) definition of external organizational communication as “the ongoing rhetorical struggle for organizations of most kinds to establish a clearly distinctive identity and at the same time connect with more general concerns so as to be maximally persuasive and effective” (p. 233). For the organizations at issue, this includes positioning themselves as LGBTI- and refugee-focused, while still addressing a larger scope of human rights advocacy in general. I asked the NGO employees how they utilized various modes of communication in my interviews (Appendix B).
Interpersonal Communication
Communication is at once a structure of human action – activity, process, practice – “an ensemble of expressive forms, and a structured and structuring set of social relations” (Carey, 1989, p. 86). Interpersonal communication is a face-to-face exchange of verbal and non-verbal messages focused toward “the transfer of symbolic
22 Fahey (1986) terms the former the conventional approach and the latter the strategic management approach. 83
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information which has as its principal goal the coordination of human activity in regard to the presentation, development, and validation of individual self-concepts”
(Cushman & Florence, 1974, p. 13). In the interviews (Appendix A) I asked the
LGBTIs how they interacted, face-to-face, with other individuals to obtain information about asylum, culture, gay concepts, and media, among other things. Interestingly, a lot of the information garnered about interpersonal communication was volunteered when answering other questions that inquired about asylum seeking, asylum application, and post-asylum life.
As mentioned previously, most LGBTI migrants do not arrive in their host country to immediately settle in and begin assimilating; rather they continue to experience engagements with heteronormative regimes of power (Manalansan, 2003).
There are legal issues to battle throughout, and after, the process to acquire asylum and citizenship, with which NGOs, lawyers, volunteer organizations, and other
LGBTIs typically provide assistance. All of these points of contact create experiences in which the individual must engage in interpersonal communication. Instead of adopting a linear model of LGBTI asylum as a journey from repression to liberation, I stress the phenomenological experiences of restructured inequalities, opportunities, and occurrences (Manalansan, 2003). It is within these lived experiences that many instances of interpersonal communication occur.
Media Use
Traditional media, or legacy media as it is often referred to, may be defined as those media that existed prior to digital and social media. It consists of radio, film, 84
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photography, television, newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. As technology progressed, the Internet23 became accessible to society at large beginning in 1995
(Castells, 2002). With its ability to integrate interpersonal communication and multimedia elements in conjunction with entertainment programing, Internet quickly became a widely utilized medium among those with access (Christian, 2012).
Social media has been traditionally defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content” (Kaplan &
Halenlein, 2010, p. 61). Categories of social media include blogs, wikis, video sharing platforms, and social networking sites (SNS). Because legacy media (print, radio, and television) in the majority of countries prohibiting same-sex intimacy usually do not allow any type of homosexual content to be disseminated, many LGBTIs turn to the
Internet and social media to be informed, as well as entertained, on issues related to homosexuality.
Some scholars argue that traditional media and online media (Internet and social) have much in common because they cover related issues and utilize parallel sources (Maier, 2010). The current study regards each as a separate entity, however while recognizing the common ground shared between them. Kelly (2010) pointed out that online media habitually refer back to traditional media. In the interviews
23 The Internet evolved from the ARPANET, which was originally created for military purposes (Castells, 2002). 85
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(Appendix A), I asked the LGBTIs about their various media use (legacy, Internet, and social) in both their pre- and post-asylum environments.
Analysis
I coded the transcribed interviews in a process similar to that of DeCuir-
Gunby, Marshall, and McCulloch (2011). In order to create data-driven codes, the authors suggest first reducing raw information into smaller units by grouping levels of meaning (data that can stand on its own as an individual theme) together. Second, identify themes within the subsamples. Third, reexamine the code to determine if it needs to be expanded or whether a new code had been created. Finally, determine the utility/reliability of the codes by comparing them to theory.
One of the tenets of qualitative data collection is to accumulate data that inductively materializes (Brennan, 2013). I took a few moments to reflect after coding each interview and consider what I have coded to ensure the themes were not only in line with my research questions, but also theoretically driven. I compared each theme with social identity and confirmed each was able to address the research questions. My goal was to create a schematic representation that is conceptually meaningful, unambiguous and succinct, yet comprehensive (Decuir-Gunby et al., 2011). The qualitative software ATLAS.ti was used to conduct the analysis. An example of this coding can be found in Appendix D.
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CHAPTER VI
SAN FRANCISCO & THE LGBTI MIDDLE EASTERN ASYLEE
As part of my fieldwork I volunteered for the Organization for Refuge,
Asylum, and Migration (ORAM), located in San Francisco, California. One of my volunteer opportunities was to represent and promote the organization at a local fundraiser for the group South West Asian, North Africa, and Middle East Queers
(SWANABAQ), which was held on a Saturday at the gay club Beaux in the Castro
District. ORAM was invited to set up a table and provide information about the programs they offered LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers.
The San Francisco region provides LGBTIs an environment of self-expression free of judgment and persecution. As I elucidate in Chapter Eight, for many refugees the city had been a beacon of queerness since their adolescent years. San Francisco is openly gay and non-apologetic in its queerness. You can be whoever you want to be and rarely does anyone take issue with it. My first day in the city I noticed all the
“queer” behavior of its citizens. There were cross dressers, nudists, costume wearers, leather daddies, people pretending to be pups on all fours, and an abundance of marijuana. By my final day in the city, none of these behaviors even caught my attention. San Francisco’s citizens are inoculated to the strange, the weird, and the queer. This setting provides many LGBTI refugees/asylees the freedom to escape from the virtual world and enter the tangible, physical world. They now were able to freely
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move about and experiment with sex, relationships, and other mundane activities that were denied to them in their host country.
Beaux is not a large club, but can hold around 200 people. There are three bars
(the biggest of which is in the middle of the first floor of the club). There is a lounge section between the main bar and the street windows, with two large boxes in between the couches. There are poles rising from the boxes to the ceiling of the club. A second floor surrounds the perimeter of the first floor in a balcony of sorts. Chairs and tables line the second floor balcony. The ORAM table is positioned on the dance floor, to the right of the main bar and next to the DJ booth. To the left of the main bar are more chairs and tables. This is a prime location and all of the patrons can view the table from anywhere in the bar. Also, all of the foot traffic is between the dance floor and the DJ booth. There’s a beer bust going on ($10 for all the Bud Light you can drink from 2:00-6:00 p.m.), so there is a steady stream of people in the bar. The music is
American pop and all sung in English. People bop their heads up and down as they chat with others. Oddly, there are no smells. Usually a bar smells like cigarettes, alcohol, sweat, or cleaning products if it’s early enough in the day. Everyone seems comfortable and is having a good time.
After being briefed on the programs I take over as sole representative for organization and man the table for three hours. People walk up and ask about the various services and projects ORAM has going on. One of them is a poster project.
The organization is asking for refugees to pose for a picture of just the back of his/her head. Then, give a one-line blurb about persecution in their homeland. Entries are 88
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aggregated for a larger poster to be distributed to organizations helping LGBTI refugees. The second poster is accompanied by a sign-up sheet. The organization is asking for LGBTI refugees who would like to be on their speaker board and speak at various events. Placing a face and a story with the greater narrative of LGBTI migration humanizes the effort. It lends a sense of affect that that helps foster empathy and encourages others to help support refugees and asylum seekers. The last project collects donations to buy BIM gift cards. BIM is a grocery store chain in Turkey. For most refugees, Turkey is the midpoint in the migration journey to asylum. Often, many are stuck in Turkey awaiting resettlement. The asylum process can be long and the refugees, while waiting in Turkey, cannot work and have few means to support themselves. ORAM wants to give them food cards to help feed them during this liminal stage.
Marwan, a refugee from Syria and an employee of ORAM whom I interviewed earlier in my trip, is present for the event. He offers some insight on Turkey to a fellow refugee. Marwan explains that in Turkey homosexual acts have been legal since the times of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey legally decriminalized homosexuality in
1858 and currently offers asylum to LGBTIs fleeing from persecution24 (FSRN,
2016). For this reason, many LGBTI refugees from the MENA region try to make it to
Turkey first before reaching a country of asylum in the West. It is also why many
NGOs and immigration/asylum lawyers have offices in Turkey. Marwan happens to
24 Although same-sex intimacy is decriminalized in Turkey, LGBTIs in the country do not have constitutional protection from discrimination and perpetrators of violent crimes toward the marginalized group typically receive lenient sentences (FSRN, 2016). 89
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have a camera man following him around for the fundraiser (as well as for a speaking event he has after the fundraiser at the University of California San Francisco). The director of the event asks the cameraman to please refrain from filming the other refugees in the room. Many of the refugees are extremely sensitive to recordings and do not want to be on camera. Some are still awaiting asylum and do not want any footage of them inside a gay club. They would like to remain anonymous.
This desire for anonymity is relevant in three ways. First and foremost, it demonstrates that these individuals have not fully internalized their identity as ‘gay,’
‘queer,’ ‘homosexual,’ or anything in the LGBTI spectrum. Their desire to remain anonymous may stem from their insecurity with their sexuality and how they will be perceived by others. They do not want to be categorized in negative manners and, in fact, they may have internalized some of the negative categorizations into their current identity. They are still negotiating who they are, and are not yet ready to fully embrace any type of LGBTI identity.
Second, it demonstrates the reluctance of refugees to engage in any kind of recorded activities or interviews. It’s extremely difficult to find willing participants for academic research. During my process of searching for interviewees, I heavily relied on informants I already knew. I utilized snowball sampling and was able to get in touch with many of my interviewees and ethnographic participants through NGO employees and other refugees known to those NGOs. ORAM placed me front and center of this fundraising event and added a level of credibility to my research by vouching for me. 90
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The third reason anonymity is relevant is it plays a major role in the advocacy of LGBTI and refugee human rights. Marwan tells me that the media is littered not only with people speaking out against LGBTIs, but also against minorities like
Muslims and Mexicans. He states he doesn’t see a counter argument saying, “I wish
LGBTI refugees would speak up and say something, but they don’t. So I will.”
Marwan hopes his speeches and interviews will raise awareness about the issue and create dialogue that instigates social change. The cameraman makes Marwan aware of the time and they excuse themselves from the event. We say our goodbyes and he leaves me alone to man the table. By this time there are a few more people in the room.
I’m alone at the table, and for a brief moment traffic is slow, so I have time to notice the refugees interacting in the room. They are laughing and hugging, some are drinking, and all having a genuinely good time. Two refugees walk up to me and one hugs me. He says, “hi Nate.” I replied, “Hi, nice to meet you.” His smile disappears. I just stare at him. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize it is Reza. He’s a refugee from Iran that I interviewed the day before. I apologize: yesterday he wore glasses and today he had contacts, which made him look different. The reality is that I have a horrible memory, something I need to work on for future studies. Reza and I had really good chemistry during our interview and he promised to spread the word about my need for interviewees. Had he taken offense to me not recognizing him, Reza may not have provided me with additional contacts. He introduces me to another refugee named Oleksander (Olek for short) from the Ukraine and tells him about my research. 91
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Reza then points to the “refugee heads” poster and lets me know that he is the first head pictured. He states that he wants to help however he can. Reza and the other refugee then begin speaking in private.
Another gentleman approaches and asks for me to explain the entire series of posters. I oblige and he donates money to the BIM card campaign. He explains he isn’t a refugee, or Middle Eastern, but supports the cause. He is friends with many of the
SWANABAQ members and wanted to show them he supported their march in the parade. He took my card and said he would pass along my request for interviewees.
This process reoccurs for the remainder of the evening. I speak to many refugees and explain the posters on the table. I give them free buttons and solicit my interview requests. I can tell that many of them are uneasy: they don’t want to be recorded and express their concern for anonymity.
A group of Iraqi refugees held a whole conversation in front of me about the asylum process and how participating in various endeavors may jeopardize their chances to get an interview for asylum. They explained to me that they cannot hold any jobs, be seen in any deviant manners (such as drinking, consuming drugs, or engaging in illegal activities), and cannot be stirring up trouble before they receive asylum. They explain that they must all obtain lawyers and apply for asylum, then await interviews with the government. One of the Iraqi refugees says he wants to help me and that he will contact me after the weekend. He stated that he plays the piano and writes songs; he especially enjoys writing about love and acceptance.
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The second Iraqi refugee stated he’s not comfortable talking to anyone and his
English isn’t that great. I look to the third and he quickly advises me that he’s straight and only there for support. His girlfriend is at a Filipino event and he’s just passing the time at the bar. He then asks me if I know where to buy weed (marijuana) and I say no. I laughed a little nervously and then they all laughed. He came back to me a couple of times throughout the event to let me know the status of his search. He had walked up and down the street and still couldn’t find any weed for purchase. Before he left he stated I was a cool guy and would be out that night with friends if I wanted something to do. He and his other friends became comfortable with me, to the point where illegal activities were discussed in my presence. San Francisco, compared to other cities in the U.S., has a relaxed policy on possession of marijuana, so that also played a role in their comfort level when speaking of the subject.
One of the individuals who came by the table was an asylum lawyer. She introduced herself by her profession, but never stated her name. She donated money to the BIM card campaign and then explained to me that she worked mainly with asylees.
She explained the difference between refugees and asylees, which was basically the active process of requesting asylum. An individual with refugee status could stay in the country, however had many restrictions on working and mobility between countries. An asylee could often receive work permits and living permits while awaiting full asylum status. She worked with numerous NGOs and offered her services to many LGBTI asylees for free. We were interrupted by a dramatic increase in the volume of the music. She wished me luck and rejoined the party. 93
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Another individual I met, Bashar, is a former refugee who now worked in
Sacramento. He told me that most LGBTI refugees were on gay mobile apps like
Grindr, Scruff, and GROWLr. He told me that would be a great way to reach potential interviewees. He took several of my cards and promised to pass them out. The last couple of conversations I had with people were difficult due to the high volume of the music. By five o’clock the party was in full swing and many individuals were drinking and dancing. The table was pushed further and further to the back of the club to accommodate the increase in bodies. A Lebanese belly dancer came out and performed for the crowd. She was heterosexual, but stated she supported the LGBTI community. She danced around to Arabic music and the crowd went wild. A birthday cake was then brought out to celebrate the birthday of five members, including Reza.
The club then began to play Arabic dance music and everyone was dancing and drinking. It was at this time that I realized that the tabling was no longer effective. I took down the posters, collected the money, and said my goodbyes.
Although the LGBTIs were forced to sever their physical links to their homeland, they brought with them the “mythical and linguistic allusions to their ancestral territory, which they invoke in nostalgic reminiscences” (Karim, 2004, p.
396). The collective singing, dancing, language, and cultural cuisine of their countries of origin are familiar to the group. The group’s nostalgic celebration transcends cultural artifacts and enters into a space of ritual commemoration. Their culture is still part of their identity and extremely salient when they are gathered together. It is through interaction with others who share common cultural characteristics that the 94
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LGBTIs are able to celebrate the meaning of those cultural symbols – symbols that hold important and significant value to them.
The individuals in SWANABAQ constituted a collectivity that was constituted in knowledge, behavior, and interaction within a social institution (Jenkins, 2002b).
The social institution in this scenario is the queer diaspora of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco. The members of SWANABAQ identified themselves as a group based on their collective characteristics of ethnicity, culture, and queerness. They were explicitly conscious of their membership and demonstrated identification through shared language, dance, food and cultural customs. None of the members acknowledged that the group was recognized officially in any capacity. However, the fact that they recognized themselves as a collectivity makes them one nonetheless. I, as an outsider, witnessed their behavior and interaction and categorized them; writing about the collectivity also reaffirms and recognizes that categorization.
It wasn’t long after I departed that I received a text message from Olek (I had given him a business card). He stated he enjoyed meeting me and asked me to join him, Reza, and other members in the Castro for the night. They were barhopping and celebrating Reza’s birthday. He said he could introduce me to other LGBTI refugees/asylees. I jumped at the opportunity. At this point I only had three refugee interviews and the participation and observation would provide more insight into my field setting.
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A Night in the Castro
The night was cool and moist, and the Castro was alive with lights, music, and the sounds of people. The streets of the Castro are lined with clubs, restaurants, and other small businesses. I met the small group on the outside patio of a club called
Melt. The small group stated they enjoyed outdoor patios because they could smoke and take in the bay breeze. I spoke with Olek for a while about his journey from the
Ukraine, his country and the underground nightlife that he enjoyed there. In the
Ukraine, one cannot be openly gay. So the gays would meet online and at underground clubs, discos, raves, and parties. Olek explained that he went to school in order to obtain enough education to apply to a U.S. university. He then applied for asylum once he was in the United States. He introduced me to Hareem, or Ri-Ri as he went by in San Francisco. Hareem was his best friend who also lived in the same apartment complex as Olek.
They met in New York City and became best friends. Hareem was from Iraq and also fled the country due to his sexual orientation. Hareem’s real name was
Hassan, but mentioned that he wanted to start his transition to a woman and had adopted a new name in order to match his “new gender identity in his new life.” Since he hadn’t officially begun his transition, he still used male pronouns. By adopting a traditionally female name, Hareem was establishing a public gender identity that signaled to others how he identified, in turn encouraging ways in which to categorize him. Also, by providing me with the option of calling him Ri-Ri, he was also
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demonstrating that he had internalized a portion of the American culture in his identity.
Hareem told me he had a partner who was unable to make it into the city for the SWANABAQ event. Both Olek and Hareem live in a city close to San Francisco.
Neither was drinking alcohol. The three of us spent about an hour just talking about the gay lifestyle, nightlife, and joking (light-heartedly) about the people around us.
Reza later joined us and brought along his friend, Mike. I remember Mike from the previous event at Club Beaux. I remember hearing him tell Reza that Arabs were sexy and he wanted to see how they were in bed. Mike is an Anglo-American male in his late 40s and stated he was there to support the “Arabs.” The group didn’t seem to mind the label and often used it themselves in casual conversation with Mike.
I need to discuss Mike briefly. As the night progressed, he continuously attempted to grab the genitalia of the men he spoke to. At one point he reached for my penis and I made it extremely clear that I wasn’t comfortable with his groping. Every time he spoke to any of the Middle Eastern LGBTIs, he would touch their shoulder with one hand and then reach for their genitalia with the other. I noticed that Reza and
Olek were deeply upset with his behavior. In fact, Olek would often roll his eyes at
Mike and move away. No one explicitly told him to stop. This concerned me. I wondered why the refugees didn’t voice their opposition to Mike’s aggressive advances. At one point of the night, when walking between bars, Mike was stopped by another Anglo-American gay man. Mike told the other guy, “I hang out with Arabs now. They’re hot. I wanna know if they fuck as good as they look.” I believe that this 97
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behavior signaled that Mike exotified the Middle Eastern men and categorized them as sexual objects. His primary intent was to sleep with one of them, if not all of them. At the end of the night, around 2:00 a.m., Mike asked if anyone wanted to go home with him and was met with silence.
Mike’s attitude and behavior toward the group is important to note. His categorizations of the “Arabs” as sexualized objects were noticed by the group. This is another categorization that the LGBTIs had to negotiate in a post-asylum setting. As he spoke about them with the other White Americans, the categorization was reinforced. Identity is variable and vulnerable and “deviant” identities may become internalized as a consequence if an individual is apprehensive of being publically categorized as such (Jenkins, 1994). It was evident that the other men did not want to be considered mere objects of sexual desire. Reza and Olek, specifically, internalized this categorization and rejected it, which was evident by their gestures and facial expressions. Most forms of mediated communication would not have allowed for such observations. It was through interpersonal communication that Reza and Olek were able to convey their emotions with body language. This rejected external definition of their social group is still an identification, however as a focus of denial (Jenkins,
2000). Although they rejected this categorization and refused to internalize it, the categorization still exists.
As the night progressed we went to a couple of gay clubs in the Castro and just listened to the music. None of the members of the small group drank alcohol. They just smoked cigarettes at bars that had patios. I noticed that everywhere we went Reza 98
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was greeted with hugs by several people. I quickly learned that Reza was a central figure in the LGBTI Middle Eastern community living in San Francisco. He introduced me to a lot of different refugees; I strongly believe that by gaining his trust
I was able to get him to advocate for my research. He would even say, “I interviewed with him, you should too.” Reza gave me a level of credibility, which was essential. I feel when others saw me hanging out with Reza, they let their defenses down a little.
This is an extremely marginalized population and a particularly sensitive group
(They’re LGBTI, refugees and most often perceived as Muslim). As demonstrated by my interactions at Club Beaux, as well as in my difficulty in getting participants to interview, there are a lot of refugees who are still scared or want to completely separate themselves from the past. I am thankful that ORAM sent me to Reza because he opened doors for me. Halfway through the night Reza introduced me to an
Egyptian refugee named Omari25, who sometimes used the name Omar. I noticed some of the Middle Eastern refugees I encountered used Americanized versions of their name, for example Hareem’s use of RiRi.
Omari stated he wanted Reza to introduce him to me before he knew I was looking for interviews. Reza thought it was a good idea for us to meet for different reasons. I have to admit, I thought Omari was attractive. However, I was there conducting academic research and it would have been both unprofessional and unethical for me to act on my attraction. Omari hung out with us for a while and often
25 Pseudonyms are used to protect the anonymity of the participants. Pseudonyms were researched online to match the individual with his respective country and culture. The main informant was contacted to verify that the names used in the study were culturally sound and correctly represented each participant’s nationality. 99
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stayed next to me to talk about my personal life. He and I exchanged some details about one another and I made him fully aware that I was observing the group for my research. Omari told me about the many different clubs in the Castro and pointed out the ones he liked. He was not into slow music or Arabic music. He didn’t dance at
Club Beaux because he wasn’t into the “slow flow of the Arabic music.” Omari liked trance26 and wanted to go to a dance club. Mike, Reza, Olek, and Hareem were not into trance and liked the patio bars. Omari received a text from a friend who was going to a dance club and excused himself from the small group. He told me he was attending a beer bust Sunday event at a “bear” club named The Eagle the next day and
I should go so that we could hang out more. He told me to look him up on the gay mobile app GROWLr – I said I would and he left.
Toward the end of the night, Olek and Hareem felt a little more comfortable with me. They spoke of sexual exploration in both their homeland and in San
Francisco. They spoke of their feelings of fear and their feelings of hope. I think as we walked and talked, more and more intimate details emerged. Hareem opened up about his life in Iraq prior to asylum. He is currently 22 and has only been in the United
States for about a year. He told me that he always knew he was attracted to men and was introduced to male-male sex through his cousins. He explained that he had slept with many of his first and second cousins. He was always the receiving partner and his cousins told him not to tell. He mentioned that as long as a man didn’t say he was gay
26 Trance is a genre of electronic media, characterized by its upbeat tempo (usually between 125 and 150 beats per minute) that is commonly played in urban dance clubs. 100
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or was the bottom (receptive partner), that he could still keep his masculinity intact. It was just sex, play among men, and didn’t necessarily mean that he was gay – it wasn’t internalized as a gay identity.
As mentioned in Chapter One, this issue of masculinity being tied to the role he performs in sexual intercourse is something that is evident among various cultures, including those in the Middle East (Cantú, 2009; Massad, 2002; Murray, 1997; Peña,
2007). Hareem’s cousins were able to partake in fulfilling a sexual desire, as long as they were the top/active role, without assuming a homosexual identity. This is similar to findings in Saudi Arabian men who still have sex with men, but do not consider themselves homosexual (Labi, 2007). What’s particularly interesting is that Hareem is considering transitioning into a female. His continual role as the receptive/submissive partner is a performance of that specific gender role.
For Hareem, his role as the submissive bottom was a performance that reinforced his identity as a gay male. He said he had seen movies and porn and knew that he was gay. He said he never felt violated or forced, he willingly had sex. He enjoyed it. He then stated that he is sexually attracted to a very specific type of man.
His ideal lover is masculine, broad-shouldered, generally older, and “acted straight.”
Although he made it clear he was attracted to masculine men, he stated his current lover is effeminate like him. Hareem stated he loved him and never wanted to stray from their relationship. He admired men from afar, but would never cheat or have an open relationship. Hareem said he liked the idea of monogamy and being in a
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relationship. He then briefly mentioned he fled Iraq because he could never be in an open same-sex relationship and feared being hurt.
Everything we spoke about was organic and volunteered. I was also able to see how the LGBTI refugees interacted with one another. They had a bond that was evident to anyone around them. At times they would start speaking in Arabic and then quickly remember that Olek and I were present, and began speaking in English. They spoke of common Middle Eastern customs, other refugees, and regularly referenced
Arabic-specific concepts. Several times they mentioned that they could never hang around straight people from their own country. Reza said he enjoyed being around other LGBTIs from the Middle East, because they could use the same language, enjoy the same customs, food and music. He said SWANABAQ provided them with a great outlet to meet others who were going through the same issues. They bonded at picnics, clubs, and other social events. They shared not only a common culture, but also a common struggle. They knew first-hand the plights of Middle Eastern gay men, and in that they found solidarity.
This discussion reminded me of Judith Butler (2012) and her statement on repression in the diaspora: “we are all, in this sense, the unchosen but we are nevertheless unchosen together” (p. 25). The individuals I met had their own collectivity in which they interacted, shaped meaning, and negotiated their identities.
Here was a gay diaspora, in the heart of San Francisco where people from all over the world gather in order to feel accepted. Within this larger landscape of homosexuals are smaller subgroups like the one I was witnessing. There was a sense of inclusion and 102
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belonging amongst these Middle Eastern gay refugees, an unspoken understanding of common struggle. It’s important to keep cultural and linguistic identities in mind when researching such groups. Their conversations, of course, were not limited to Arabic or
Middle Eastern content. They spoke about horoscopes and music. They joked about sex clubs and pornography. To my surprise, there was not much talk about primetime television, films, or online content. The conversations were mostly about their life experiences. Important to note is that these conversations happened within LGBTI circles in the queer diaspora. The group expressed little interest in interacting with their broader cultural diaspora that included non-LGBTI members. They categorized the non-LGBTIs as unaccepting, hurtful, and not able to change in their ideologies.
The group also assumed that the non-LGBTIs categorized the gay men in pejorative and deviant ways as well.
Olek was the only refugee in the small group that was not of Middle Eastern or
Arabic descent. I have to mention both, because there were some Iranian men who identified as Middle Eastern, but not Arabic. They spoke Farsi, a Persian language.
Olek was from the Ukraine and spoke Russian. He was fair-skinned and spoke English very well. He had a septum ring and was stylishly dressed. He stated that most people didn’t even realize he was from the Ukraine. He told me that he and Hareem had met in New York City and lived together there, along with several other people, in one apartment. They had always wanted to go to San Francisco because of its gay-friendly and accepting atmosphere. He and Hareem decided they would move to area together, and ended up in a city just outside of San Francisco. They lived in the same building, 103
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on the same floor, but in separate apartments. He did mention that although they had separate apartments, they were always together in one. Olek expressed that he liked to explore his sexuality. Throughout the night Hareem would compare Olek to himself.
Olek was promiscuous and was not into monogamy. He told me that nothing about a relationship appealed to him. He wanted to be free and do what he wanted. He liked chatting on gay apps and enjoyed casual hook ups. He was unapologetic about his lifestyle and wanted to explore what was so long denied to him in his past. Olek met all his Middle Eastern friends through Hareem and became a staple in the group.
At the end of the night we said our goodbyes and I was given hugs by every member of the group. I feel in the short time we spent together, we were able to connect and share experiences. The clubs in the Castro provided a lively background to our conversations, while simultaneously allowing me to observe the LGBTI refugees in their post-asylum atmosphere. Enjoying such an evening out with queer friends was something that they were not able to do in their native countries. The freedom to move about and perform their identities in public, and with one another, offered an opportunity to negotiate who they were. The small group of LGBTI refugees/asylees had demonstrated that they had internalized various parts of the
Castro, and ultimately American and gay culture, into their identities. They negotiated the categorizations of others, by either embracing or rejecting them, and together these internal identifications and external categorizations shaped their social identities
(Jenkins, 2000) in the queer diaspora of the Castro.
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The Eagle and the Bears
On Sunday afternoon (the day after my Castro club crawl) I headed to The
Eagle, which is located in San Francisco’s Folsom district, to meet Omari. I inserted the address into my iPhone’s GPS and saw that it was only a 30 minute walk. The weather was extremely nice, so I decided to walk instead of drive or take an Uber. The route seemed like the same landscape that I had been walking through the past couple of days. However, after about 15 minutes, the neighborhoods began to change. It seemed more urban and concrete. I approached a huge overpass filled with homeless people. San Francisco seemed to have a disproportionate number of homeless individuals compared to other cities I’ve visited. This highlighted the city’s tolerance even more. There seemed to be a huge congregation of homeless people under this bridge. They had makeshift homes out of boxes and some even had tents. As I approached the bridge I could see some of them throwing half-eaten fruit and trash at people as they walked by. It was very intimidating so I picked up my pace and walked quickly through the intersection and under the bridge. To my surprise, my destination was the first building past the bridge.
The location was extremely different from the Castro. It was rugged, dirty, and exuded a strong masculine ethos. The club and its location matched the ethos of the club and the clientele. The Eagle is a bear bar in every form and fashion. As the reader may recall from Chapter Six, a bear is a term used to describe a burly, hairy, thicker type of gay male. Today, like every Sunday at The Eagle, there was a beer bust. For
$10 one could drink all the draft Bud Light they wanted from 3:00 until 7:00 p.m. I 105
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arrived at 4:30 pm, the same time that Omari said he would also be arriving. I texted him and he told me he was outside on the patio. I showed my ID at the door and entered the main bar area. There was a heavy smell of smoke and, although it was still sunlight outside, the bar was very dim and dark. There were quite a few people inside the bar. I walked around a bit and then headed outside onto the patio. There were even more people outside. It was hard to maneuver through the crowd, but I pushed my way through and made a full circle.
There was an outside bar, an elevated platform, and a makeshift dancefloor in the middle. Trees lined the back of the patio and created a soft shade on the north side of the bar. I couldn’t find Omari. I headed back inside and bought a drink. I texted
Omari and he gave me his location one more time, under the big tree on the patio. I was just there, but with so many people it was hard to decipher who was who. Plus, everyone there fit the stereotypical “bear” type: burly men, overweight or muscled up, and beards. There were beards everywhere! Omari was an exception. He had a baby face with three dimples (one on each cheek and one on his chin). He had a bald head and absolutely no facial hair. As I walked toward the biggest tree, he finally appeared.
He stood out from the rest of the crowd.
Omari greeted me with a hug. I noticed he had on shorts, a Captain America t- shirt, and tennis shoes. He also had on a beer bust bracelet and was drinking beer from a clear plastic cup. He asked how my journey was and I told him about the walk and the homeless people. Omari told me there were so many homeless people in San
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in San Francisco, that a lot of people live on the streets. Omari told me he lived in a house with three other roommates and his portion of the rent was still $700, which he thought was cheap. He owned a vehicle, but he didn’t like to drive in the city. He left it parked on the street in front of his house and used either public transportation or
Uber/Lyft. San Francisco has a well-structured transportation system. We made small talk about the great weather, the patrons of the bar, and the dating scene in San
Francisco. Omari told me he wanted a monogamous relationship, however, there weren’t too many gay men that wanted the same. He was often attracted to guys who weren’t attracted to him. He described his type as the “daddy” type, older and bearded.
Omari asked about my trip to San Francisco and I explained to him my research endeavors, as well as my concern for finding more interviewees. He responded, “I’m here, ask me anything.” This would have been an ideal opportunity had it not been for the loud music and the constant interruption of other drunk patrons trying to squeeze between us as they maneuvered around the patio. The Eagle was the counterpart to the clubs in the Castro. Here everyone came specifically to drink, it was a beer bust after all. Even Omari, who refused to drink the night before when he was with his Arabic and Middle Eastern friends, was fully partaking in the beer bust. The music was also much louder and the crowd much more rowdy. The atmosphere was filled with testosterone, hair, and the stench of beer.
Omari stood closer to me and yelled directly into my ear to cut through the noise and managed to share a few things in between interruptions. Omari stated he was from Egypt and the youngest of three children. His father really wanted him to be 107
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masculine and pushed Omari toward a more masculine occupation. Omari’s father still didn’t know he was gay and Omari wasn’t quite ready to tell him. Omari used
Facebook, like all of the refugees I spoke to, and really didn’t post too much about his personal life, much less his sexual orientation. His family members were among his friends on Facebook.
Omari did mention that he posted a supportive comment in July when the U.S. legalized same-sex marriage. His father called him and asked why he was supporting
“the gays.” Omari defended his actions and tried to convince his father that there was nothing wrong with being gay, but his argument fell upon deaf ears. Omari still wasn’t sure if he would come out to his family. He did know that he was happy and wanted to live in San Francisco forever. I questioned the appeal of the city and he replied it had always been a beacon of queer lifestyle. In Egypt he would search online for pictures and videos about the city. He knew it was the only place he wanted to live. This demonstrates how mediated communication is used to shape categorizations of places and not just individuals. He said he and all of the people in Egypt used the Internet and cell phone apps to learn about Western culture. Omari used digital media specifically to find out about the gay lifestyle outside of Egypt. He would also use Facebook to reach other gay people. They would chat and private message, but Egypt didn’t foster a friendly environment to meet in person.
In the middle of our makeshift interview, a bearded man in his mid-forties approached us. He was another Egyptian and they greeted each other with hugs. They began to speak in Arabic for about three minutes before the friend asked me if I spoke 108
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Arabic. When I answered no, he looked surprised. He said I looked Middle Eastern and apologized. He introduced himself as Ammon and they continued their conversation in English. They made small talk about last night’s adventures and then the friend dismissed himself. Omari told me that Ammon was the only Middle Eastern man he had ever been attracted to since he moved to San Francisco. In spite of this, the friend made it clear that Omari was not his type. Omari commented they both had
“daddy issues” and preferred males older than themselves. Omari expressed his discontent and then excused himself to grab a BBQ sandwich, which was free with the beer bust bracelet. I stayed on the elevated platform on the patio and observed the crowd.
Everyone looked like they were having a great time. The weather was cool, but not cold and the sun was setting. There was music, but no dancing. There wasn’t any room to dance, it was too crowded. The men all drank and smoked and talked with one another and appeared to be enjoying themselves. I saw a few of them coupling together and then starting to make out. Omari returned and ate his sandwich. The beer bust was winding down and patrons began to leave. Omari was ready to go home and so was I; we walked out of the bar together then parted ways. I texted him the next day and asked if I could have an official interview. He declined with “I told you yes yesterday and you said no, sorry.”
Insider/Outsider
The implications for this weekend focused ethnography were distinguished by my ability to be not only allowed into the discursive spaces of these LGBTI 109
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refugees/asylees, but also the opportunity to participate within them, within limits. For example, I did not get romantically involved with Omari and stayed within my ethical boundaries of a researcher. While I was able to participate and observe these spaces, I am not a part of the culture. Being gay definitely facilitated in my acceptance into the group settings, however I am still Latino, a U.S. citizen, and from Texas. As other ethnographers have documented in their research (Conquergood, 1992, 1994; Willis,
1997), as both a participant and an observer, I am both insider and outsider. Trust had to be earned at a much more demanding concentration so that I could be granted access to not only the collective space, but also to the meanings and nuances shaped and maintained by the individuals within them.
I was allowed to see two performances of identity, or front stages/regions as
Goffman (1959) labels it. One performance was the SWANABAQ event where the
LGBTIs were able to congregate with other LGBTIs of their culture. They spoke
Arabic, danced to Arabic music, and ate Arabic cuisine. It was a space that belonged to them and their Middle Eastern culture, separate from the rest of the Castro clubs and citizens. The Castro itself served as the another front region, a space where their language and song was kept hidden in a deliberate attempt to acculturate with the rest of the queers in San Francisco. Here, the LGBTI refugees/asylees performed an identity that was negotiated in relation to the Castro, and the queer diaspora, as a social institution. The common identity in both spaces was that of being queer. It’s also important to note that neither of the front regions serve as a reality or a main performance (Goffman, 1959). Both are real to the LGBTIs and both are part of their 110
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identity. They must negotiate both spaces and integrate them into their overall identity.
They are queer, they are of Middle Eastern, and they are refugees/asylees living in the
United States.
It is within these social fields that the LGBTIs interact with others on a personal basis. They gravitate toward other individuals with whom they share commonalities, but also those with whom they feel comfortable. The queers in the
Castro, The Eagle, and especially those involved with SWANABAQ, treated the
LGBTIs with respect and kindness. These categorizations of the LGBTIs were internalized and resulted in positive identification with the groups they chose to associate in. Identification is affected by not only how others define us, but also how they treat us (Jenkins, 2000). Also evident, was the interaction between the Middle
Eastern LGBTI refugees and the queers in San Francisco as a collective, in the Castro generally and at The Eagle specifically. Jenkins’ assertion that “contact between groups may produce incremental and mutual shifts in identification” was evident in the language and behaviors of the LGBTI refugees/asylees (2000, p. 21).
Also evident in the interactions was how the LGBTIs used both verbal and nonverbal communicative forms to construct a post-asylum culture for themselves.
They transitioned back and forth from Arabic to English depending on their social context and the topic under discussion. While in the SWANABAQ meetings they primarily utilized Arabic, however in the Castro clubs they spoke English. The clothing they chose to wear was non-traditional attire, even at the cultural event. They dressed like others in the Castro, or in Omari’s case, like other bears. Speaking 111
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English and wearing American apparel demonstrate how the LGBTIs embodied their social environment.
Conducting a focused ethnography provide me not only the opportunity to observe interpersonal communication among the LGBTI refugee/asylees in the queer diaspora, but also afforded me the opportunity to interact with them myself.
Participation allowed me to compare and contrast the various social fields that this group interacts within and provided me with more nuanced exchanges from which to gather my data.
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CHAPTER VII
THE MIDDLE EAST & PRE-ASYLUM IDENTITY
The queer diaspora of the Castro afforded a non-threatening environment for me to meet with the gay refugees and asylees face-to-face, without fear of repercussions, and interview them about their lived experiences in their native countries and the role mediated and interpersonal communication played in their everyday lives. The respective Middle Eastern countries of each individual provided the primary socialization for identity formation. It also, as described in Chapter 1, provided a negative categorization of LGBTIs and fostered an environment of fear and violence for those who chose to identify as LGBTI.
This chapter reveals the central themes and findings related to the gay refugee/asylee participants in the interviews. The chapter provides information and t on how the participants used communication, both interpersonal and mediated, in a pre-asylum context. A focus on pre-asylum communication aims to identify how interviewees negotiated internal feelings of same-sex desire and sought information about refuge and asylum.
The Concept of Gay
This section contains descriptions of some extremely cruel acts against gay men. The concept of what ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ means varies in different regions of the world. In some places, the concept doesn’t even exist. Study participants felt it necessary to explicate how their feelings and behaviors toward members of the same-
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sex provoked harsh attitudes in their native homelands. It was these reactions, both verbal and physical, that served as catalysts for their migration to areas of asylum.
Marwan27 stated
First, I always wanted to leave Syria because the LGBT status in Syria is not the best. There are lots of laws that criminalize homosexuality, especially for men, and then there’s homophobia. The community's not supportive. Your family is not supportive. So I was thinking about leaving. During the so-called revolution, it started to become more violent, and then the extremists came in like al-Nusra, which is Al Qaeda branch, and they announced that they will cleanse the whole-- my hometown, from all LGBT or gay people or what they call sodomites. And then I felt like I'm not safe at home, and I'm not safe outside, and this is only the beginning. Who knows what’s going to happen? So I one day just decided that I have to leave after a huge fight between me and my dad, and I was afraid that he will go to the militia and tell them that, “my son is gay,” and be done with it. So I just decided to say, “No more. This is my life, I control it.” I just took some steps and I was lucky enough to find one of my friends in Lebanon, who was willing to give me a place to stay for a while until I am up on my feet. So, we coordinated and we planned together, and then I just escaped.
As mentioned in Chapter One, and reified through Marwan’s commentary, there are pejorative connotations for gay men in Middle Eastern countries (Najmabadi, 2005;
Massad, 2002) with harsh consequences for engaging in same-sex intimacy (Bertrand,
2015; ORAM, 2012). Syria was no exception. The reactions were similar for Nassim; he also felt unsafe in his native country of Lebanon:
It's like people look at gays in a very bad way. That's the culture. You're gay, you're not from us. That's the point over there. It's not only that we have gay bars and we can't go out, even it's unsafe to use the applications, the gay applications, like Ryder, Growlr. There would be one of the police guys, one of the officers, would be playing with you to just get you out to meet you, and he would take you to jail. That's one of the bad points, too. Still, they're not accepting [of] the gay community in Lebanon.
27 Study participants were assigned pseudonyms to protect their anonymity. 114
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Nassim highlights that those who take on a gay or homosexual identity are othered by members of their culture. Collectivities, in this sense Lebanon as a nation, “must have some consequences for individual practice and experience, and for the nature of interaction between individuals” (Jenkins, 2002b, p. 18). Sexual relations between members of the same-sex are rendered controversial by Nassim’s national collectivity.
Collective membership is contingent in part by performing appropriately (Jenkins,
2002b). Those who don’t are categorized as ‘others’ and no longer seen as part of the collectivity.
In Iran, the issue of homophobia spilled over from attitude to behavior. Mahdi feared for his safety and his sanity. This fear was inflicted not only from the community, but also from family members, as Mahdi explains:
Because I am gay and they fear gay, there is no way for you to have a life there. It begins with your safety and you generalize it to all the aspects of life, then you're cornered everywhere, and so you can't do anything because that fear actually paralyzes you - whatever you want to do. Because you don't feel protected by the law then anyone around you could be a possible threat. It could be your friend, it could be your parent, it could be your boss, it could be your best friend. You never know who might just rat you out and what's going to happen to you next.
These violent behaviors were echoed in horrible stories told by other refugee interviewees. Ibrahim recounts some of the sadistic retributions imposed upon
LGBTIs living in Iraq:
The danger of it, you get kidnapped, you get glued. What they do is, after they trap you, with those fake profiles, they kidnap you and they lock you up in a room. And they glue your anus with a very thick and sticky glue that nothing will come out. They'll feed you - force feed you - and give you laxatives. And you die, you just have internal bleeding and then die. So, this is what happens in Baghdad. 115
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Ibrahim told me that the stories he heard scared him; however, the reality and the severity of the persecution sank in when he himself was exposed as gay and a group of straight men tried to help “correct” him:
He gathered his friends in a coffee shop…he said, “I know you're gay and this is wrong and we're going to straighten you up.” They sent me to a whorehouse, and they told me to fuck one of the prostitutes. Of course in Dubai prostitutes are part of the white slavery. So the Russian mafia they buy them from their families for I don't know how much, maybe five grand or ten grand. And they ship them or they send them to Dubai for prostitution until they pay up or do whatever. And of course the government does not want to know about it -- they always give them the shut eye because they take 20% of the hotels. And those slaves they fuck in the hotels. What happened then? I went there and they paid the prostitute. And the prostitute kept trying and trying, and of course I have no reaction because of what they call it, pussy phobic. I just told her, “Well sorry, that's not going to work, but please tell them that I did everything.” She said, “Okay, doesn't matter.” I went out, they were happy. I went back home, I stopped replying to their messages. I didn't want to talk to them anymore. And they started calling me from other numbers. And they started threatening me like we know where you live, we're going to hurt you. We're going to do this, we're going to do that. I just ignored it. I just ignored everything because I knew that I'm going to be graduating. I'm going to graduate and the moment I graduate, I'm going to leave and go to France.
This method of correction constituted the men forcing Ibrahim to perform
“appropriate” behaviors that reified group identity. External categorization was imposed on Ibrahim by physical force and the threat of violence and even death; this is an exercise and abuse of power. Individuals faced with such an imposition either come to think of themselves in the language or categorization of his/her oppressor, or risk harsh consequences by resisting (Jenkins, 1994). The direction an individual takes is completely dependent on how he/she internalizes those categorizations (Jenkins,
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2000). In some instances where power is an issue, individuals may choose the former.
In this specific case, Ibrahim chose the latter and fled the country.
The use of physical force and threats is evident in the experiences of other refugees, as well. Reza explained same-sex intimacy in Iran is illegal and punishable by execution: “They will kill you, I mean, the government. If you just privately do it, secretly do it, nobody knows. But if you start to act gay freely in the society, that's the issue.” The ways in which one “acts gay” also vary. For Iranians, Reza specified that there was a very particular idea of who gay men were:
Being gay [is] kind of different in Iran. The gay culture is very different. There is more like-- whenever you talk it's like older guy attracted to young beautiful boy. That's what people think of gay. Nobody would imagine two big macho guys, both are gay. There always one that's top dominant older guy and then one beautiful boy. That's typical [what] people think.
Reza’s comment demonstrates part of the process of social identity where an individual identifies how others categorize him/her. This categorization, among others, is then internalized in a self-identification process, resulting in social identity (Jenkins,
1994). Of course, social identity is always contextual, and the process is often complex.
There was also a sentiment that being gay was something that was curable and not innately related to a person’s identity. Reza’s family members suggested therapy or other corrective procedures. Reza’s mother had a difficult time accepting her son’s sexuality at first:
She said, “Maybe this is a disease, maybe your hormones are not right. Go check a doctor. Maybe he can fix you.” And then I explained to her, I sent her some articles. So after a few months, eventually she stopped saying those 117
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things – that go and see a doctor. She then accepted me and after that she came here and visited me.
In a similar situation to Reza’s, Ibrahim’s mother not only suggested therapy, but actually forced her son to attend sessions:
And that day I just told her. It was at dinner, we were having dinner in a restaurant, me and my brother, and she was there. Everybody was saying whatever secret they have and I was like, “I'm gay.” I didn't say, “I'm gay,” I said, “I like men.” I never had any attraction to women, never. I like men. And she was shocked, both of them were shocked. They were just silent, and then she said, “Well, I'm glad that you told us and you said your problem, and I know a very good therapist, and you have to do conversion therapy.” And she sent me to conversion therapist [chuckles]. She sends me to a conversion therapist, and that conversion therapist said that I need to be straight, I need to think of women, think of the natural way, he started giving me straight porn. I liked the porn, not because of the women, because of the men. I just kept the CDs and I did not give it back to him.
Ibrahim’s mother also convinced him to marry his cousin. He agreed because she had
New Zealand citizenship. The arrangement, however, fell through and Ibrahim was stuck in Dubai for a period of time before he was able to flee to the U.S.
As argued in Chapter One, the existence of laws and regulations at a national or state level justify persecution and relegation toward individuals who are, or perceived to be, gay (Jordan, 2009). The castigations levied against the LGBTIs come from government officials, the community, and family members. In the preceding accounts of the gay refugees/asylees there is a manifestation of social control, a social field that Jenkins (1994) argues is among the most important contexts in which categorization occurs. There is an issue of power and control central to consider in this situation. The governments serve as a formal legal authority and are usually supported by the gay men’s family and community. The government has the power to create and 118
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enforce rules, regulations, and laws. Together with members of the community and municipal authorities, they have the power to control and monitor those conventions.
This social control categorizes gay men as an unequal and deviant category of individuals, which endorses consequences such as harsh attitudes, isolation, persecution, violence, and even death. External categorization can be imposed upon by physical force and threat – power – as demonstrated here (Jenkins, 2000). Due to this, gay men living in such conditions cannot be overt in their attitudes and behaviors.
They have to negotiate their internal feelings of same-sex desire against this social world as discussed below.
Same-Sex Secrets
In the Middle East, there has long been a practice of men having sex with other men, however the practice was reduced to an act and not an orientation or identity
(Labi, 2007; Najmabadi). Men who engage in such activity kept it private and did not speak of it in public for fear of being categorized as gay which was equated to being deviant. The interviewees vocalized the same concerns. Reza spoke about other closeted men who have sex with other men, “If they start to walk in the street like a gay or whatever attitude, other people will start to come out and watch more and more and people feel comfortable about it. As long as it is secret, negative, they're fine.” He continued that being gay would never materialize into an accepted culture in Iran.
Reza’s internalization of what it meant to be gay was something he struggled with for a long time and, ultimately, something he accepted. He identified with the concept of gay was accused of being ‘Western’ as he recounts: 119
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Well, I was always accused of being westernized, even when I was trying to accept myself. I was not trying to say, “Yeah, the community, this gay lifestyle is from the western tradition and I want to get married and then have tons of sexual relationship with boys.” That's what they think, this is gay life to them, there, and that social structure they built around themselves. Not all. There are lots of people who want to live their lives like normally. They want to accept their self, celebrate their sexuality, but the majority would tell you that no, we want to be part of the group. We don't want to lose our family support. We don't want to lose our community support. We want to have jobs. We want to stay in this community. We'll get married, have children, but at the same time we will sleep with anybody we want, particularly if they're males
Reza’s commentary resonates the concept of gay identity being Western- manufactured. Massad (2002) argues that although same-sex intimacy has long been present in the Middle East, the idea of a ‘gay’ identity is not. As Reza described, some individuals living in his home country of Iran do not internalize ‘gay’ as part of their identity. Their nationality, family, culture, and religion may be more salient for them.
They still engage in same-sex intimacy, but do not consider it to be a facet of their overall identity.
Massad (2002) also argues this Western-imposed identity has brought about attention, and thus harassment, to individuals practicing same-sex intimacy. As mentioned in Chapter One, a postcolonial sense of Islamism and nationalism attempts to combat all influences that are perceived as Western, including homosexuality
(Awwad, 2010). Other men who have sex with men in Reza’s native country, Iran, have identified more with an Islamic category, than with a gay one. Also of interest is the notion of men having sex with anyone they wanted, as long as they got married and had children. As long as the male fulfills his procreative obligations, no one
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questions what he does in private (Najmabadi, 2005). It’s part of male privilege in the culture.
One participant explored his sexuality in secret while living in Dubai. Ibrahim recounts his life change after his first sexual experience with an American visitor who was in Dubai for an oil conference:
After that I started hooking up normally, regularly. In Dubai they have nightclubs, underground nightclubs, gay nightclubs. Mostly men, of course gay men. In those nightclubs, there are tons of bouncers who look at everyone if they are behaving. What I mean by behaving, you cannot be close to that person, you cannot hold hands, you cannot kiss. You cannot be intimate …just dance and enjoy the music, have a drink and leave – that's it. When I get there I just stay there for 10, 15 minutes, I get depressed and I leave. Like I just get done, I cannot stand it. There’s expensive booze – a beer for $10, it's like whatever.
Ibrahim was able to explore his sexuality physically with a Western male, which served as a catalyst for other sexual behaviors. Ibrahim’s experience, however, differed from other gay refugees/asylees I interviewed. The others utilized media to investigate their internal feelings of same-sex desires, although they never acted on those desires in their homeland. The fear of repercussions from being categorized as gay was enough to dissuade any physical actions.
Categorization of “Queers”
There are not many positive words for homosexuals in the Middle East.
Nassim gives insight into his native country of Lebanon: “No, [foreign] doesn't mean gay. Gay is like a good word because we know gay is a good word. But they say, fag – that's a fag.” Reza adds that in Iran, “there are so many slang, which all of them are offensive or very negative. Fag, that's the word that most of people use...if you talk, 121
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nobody say, Oh, you're homosexual. They will say you are faggot or kuni or something like that.” Mahdi, also from Iran, adds insight:
Because there are a lot of conflicts – like religious conflicts, cultural conflicts, and traditionally this was not something acceptable – the terms that have been used traditionally are all negative and pejorative. Actually, it's interesting because even in Iran the official media is actually moving away from the really pejorative terms to nicer terms to refer to these people, although there the officials still use the pejorative terms.
Faris and Rahimi (2009) noted a recent trend of Iranians crafting new words in the
Farsi language such as degarbashan jensi (queer), hamjans garaa (a positive reference to homosexuality as a viable sexual orientation), and degarbash setizi (homophobia) in order to better localize and communicate the Iranian LGBTI experience (p. 68). Here, intersectionality is quite evident. The interviewees are gay, yet still Middle Eastern, as well as cisgender28 males. As Mahdi points out, there are several conflicts between various facets of identities that the interviewees, as well as other LGBTIs, struggle with.
Derogatory terms are still widely used in the native countries of the interviewees. These pejorative conceptualizations of gay often have a harmful effect on gay men growing up in the Middle East because of their emotional and psychological repercussions. Marwan recounts how he came to terms with being gay:
When I was introduced to my sexuality, back then I always knew myself as a pervert because this the language they use and mostly when they translate, let's say a western movie with the mention of the word gay, they always use ‘abnormal’ when they translate it to Arabic. There were no like understanding
28 Cisgender, or cis for short, implies an individual’s gender identity is in agreement with the gender assigned at birth. For example, I was born a male and I identify as a male. Transgender is when gender identity is not in agreement with the gender assigned at birth. 122
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of the word. It was like what does it mean – gay? I never knew it as me, gay, I didn't know it. But one of my straight friends who was like studying psychology and philosophy, he told me, “Do you know about this new thing that's happening, everybody is talking about?” I was like, “What? What do you mean?” He's like, “Gays.” In Arabic we use gays, same thing too. I said like, “What do you mean? What does it mean – gay?” He explained it. Then I look at myself like, “Ah, he's talking about me. That's awesome.” But I was introduced through this, and then the Internet came and Wikipedia explained the whole concept of homosexuality, and gayness and things. And yeah, gay is not very thing – like a word does not exist, you don't use it and speak it out loud. If you say gay, whisper it!
Because there is not a positive Arabic or Farsi equivalent for the word gay, people simply use the English word gay. Mahdi explains that “gay is very common among people who are more educated maybe or more in touch with the media.” Pre- conceptualized Western frameworks are often imported and localized in order to negotiate an understanding of homosexuality (Korycki & Nasirzadeh, 2014).
This reoccurring theme of not having a native word for ‘gay’ is important to note. The interviewees clearly expressed having a gay identity, but not having a way in which to express it. They turned to Westernized concepts in order to shape meaning. It was through mediated interactions that the gay men were able to internalize a categorization of gay that was more in-line with how they felt. The word gay was not limited to the LGBTI community in these countries, it was also used by other individuals to describe LGBTIs. The word had different connotations depending on context; it was contingent upon the speaker and the receiver.
Another interesting observation made during my interviews with the gay refugees/asylees was the presence of patriarchal gender roles. This makes sense, given the individuals are still socialized within a greater heteronormative system in their 123
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respective home countries. These gender roles were most evident in comments made by Nassim:
Actually, because for me, if you're gay, you have to sleep with men. And men have to be men. I respect everyone’s choices - whatever you want to do, whatever you want to dress. But for me for my side, if I'm gay, it means like I'm a man but I'm gay. I like gays, but I like man gays. I like masculine gays. If someone is feminine, he's not mine. I can be friends with him or whatever he want. But like for me, sexually, like that – no. I have to be with a man. That's it, or I can go sleep with a girl, maybe.
Nassim demonstrates the way he categorizes how a gay male should act. It is directly influenced with how he has internalized the term. External categorizations and internal identification are not mutually exclusive, they influence one another in the social identity process (Jenkins, 2008). Nassim also identified the consequences for not behaving appropriately within the social context of Lebanon. He alludes to the fact that the punishment in in his home country of Lebanon is self-inflicted by gay men
“acting gay:”
Sometimes we, the gays, make fun of them because they're not supposed to do that, because they got hit or someone will spit on them. Because you have to do that at home because you're in a country that it's illegal to do that, what they're doing, but still sometimes they do that and they sometimes in our city got killed and like – a lot of stories, a lot of bad stories happen, yeah.
A similar response from Marwan extends this sentiment to the masses:
Lesbians are – they're not fortunate at all, but sometimes they're immune, because they don't consider their sexuality as sex in the first place, or they don't consider them with options. So they are more waived. And you cannot go and kill a lesbian because she's a girl and she's the owner of the family. So everybody will attack you for killing them. But gay men, we're like cursed. Because if you're a man you should represent the society in a certain way and you should not cross the line of gender role. So you should always look masculine and stuff like that.
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Here, the categorization process of social identity helps elucidate the ways in which men who have sex with men are categorized differently than women who have sex with women. In Nassim and Marwan’s respective countries, as well as in most other Middle Eastern countries, there are different categorizations for gender. Each category has its own expectations of appropriate behavior and interaction (Jenkins,
2002b). If an individual does not act accordingly to his/her categorization, they are othered and are subject to consequences. For women it is punishment by her family, whereas for a man it may be death.
Legacy Media’s Reification of Homophobia
Because the government still controls a majority of the traditional media in
Middle Eastern countries (Warf &Vincent, 2007), homophobia is reinforced in the media (Human Rights Watch, 1999). Mahdi explains:
In Iran, they're considered sick and they can't do anything. So they cannot really be that open about it because I think the public, in general, isn't really accepting. They're [global networks] not directing their programs at a specific audience. It's just everyone can watch it, in all the cities, small and big, and villages, and everywhere. Well, I have to add this, this is through satellite channel receivers, which are illegal. And then there are police raids from time to time taking away all the satellite dishes… I remember one was a Farsi service of that has some talk shows about LGBT people and they're going from Iran to Turkey and eventually to other countries.
In Syria, the situation is the same. Marwan explains how there is only one message disseminated in the media and no counter narratives:
Since the satellites came in there were people more exposed to the thing, they started to tell the Sodom and Gomorrah story. It's the same in the Quran but in a more violent way, so people started to use it to talk about these people. They'd call us sodomites and other pervert names. I'd rather not talk about them. But there were some sessions at mosques, that start to teach you how to 125
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hate these people, and there were other mosques that would tell you that these people are sick, and other mosques will tell you that these people should be quarantined until they are healed, and then re-introduce them to society. So there were lots of different opinions, but at the same time there were not clear messages on what do they want to do with gay people, except like hatred. They hated them all, they didn't know what to do with them. Then TV started to introduce, after the unrest in 2012 and 13, gay characters – but the gay characters only came through effeminate boys. There were no real representation of what is gay, or how complicated is the character. It was only effeminate boys who's looking for sex, or they were infected with HIV and they were dying. That's the only way they introduced gay people.
In a similar fashion, Reza said he mainly used television and radio as a way to entertain himself. The government regulates the traditional media in Iran and most of the programming was, and still is, Islamic-based. “So then there is no female singers or show anything or even the guy singers. They just kind of boring. They just sit and sing. There is no dance or anything because it's illegal.” He recounts watching satellite channels from Turkey, Europe, and the U.S. as a source of information for both gay understanding and Western concepts:
All of my family, we know English, we are watching these TV channels. I don't remember from when, but I know the word gay and everybody knows. I mean almost everybody in Asia they know the word of gay also. And then also this things that you are watching like Ricky Martin, Elton John, we were all teenagers and they will say, “You know, Ricky Martin is gay.” or something like that. Because my girl cousins they love Ricky Martin. He was sexy. And we'll say, “Oh, no, he's gay. He likes guys [chuckles].”
Reza also added that his family, like other Iranians, viewed Western media as corruptive and tuned it out, “Oh, this is Western, why they are just trying to talk about this, we don't want to hear.” Aside from the fact that Reza and his family were exposed to Western and gay imagery, the preceding quote also highlights how gay men were ridiculed and laughed at, even in non-Western regions. While he was 126
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laughing at his cousins about gay celebrities, he was also secretly watching gay content on European satellite channels, “I remember I was curious. So I found the TV channel, I think it was called Pink TV. So that was just like a gay channel, TV channel, for French people. And there was one from Italy just was gay TV.” Reza’s commentary points to the diversification of traditional media, something that is often, and incorrectly, credited solely to digital media.
Mahdi, also from Iran, never perceived the programing as Western because the shows he was exposed to were broadcast on Iranian television and used Iranian actors.
He explains:
It was never portrayed as something Western because it always included information about people in Iran. Because this is the Farsi Service, all the people who are involved are Iranian, actually. They're either Iranian- Americans or just ones who moved here [U.S.]. So when you watch those programs, you rarely get the stance that they are promoting a Western culture, although the government and the official media in Iran might try to impose on people that this is Western-fed. I never got that feeling, but then again, I'm just one person.
However, Mahdi’s assessment of news programs was not the same as television programming. He stated:
Well, naturally you hear all the news about what's going around. And then the media just exaggerates old pieces of news, just trying to portray it as something negative. It's like, “Oh, that country just ratified gay marriage.” They don't promote it, but they just include it in the news as to condemn the Western culture. But you still, when you're gay, you just connected to that and say, “Hey, well it's legal in that country whether my own government accepts it or not.” You know that it's happening somewhere else.
Mahdi’s comment supports Armbrust’s (2002) argument that technological determinism has encouraged academics to focus on news over entertainment. While I
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argue there is value in both news and entertainment, Mahdi highlights that news coverage directly addresses the gay issues that are most salient in the West, encouraging them to also be significant in non-Western countries. Mahdi also points out that no matter how the news media frame the story, the information is still processed at an individual level and gay men make note of areas where being gay is acceptable. Media, then, helps LGBTIs identify more accepting locations to flee (Puar,
2008).
Social Media & Internet
Since being gay was not portrayed in positive terms through traditional media in a majority of the Middle East (Human Rights Watch, 1999), most of the refugees turned to the Internet and social media to find out more information on gay concepts.
Mahdi recalls, “Well, yeah, you have all kinds of information out there, and the
Internet – if you're asking about information being available socially, no. There is nothing. I mean, you don't even get the regular information, let alone the very sensitive kind of information.” He used the Internet to look up definitions, practices, and gay entertainment media. Mahdi specifically used the Internet to investigate the internal struggles he was feeling with his sexuality:
So when I went to school, it was back in 1994, and by then we still didn't have Internet access at home. But I went to school, we had Internet access there. At that time, there were no filters or anything and I was so excited. So one of the things that I did was to run a search on Iran and homosexual, because I already knew the term. There was this whole lot of information on websites that Iranian and gay Iranians, who were living outside of Iran, had put together. So that was my first exposure to the term, and that was actually the first time that I realized there are people like this living abroad and they have a life and all.
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Mahdi’s commentary demonstrates the exact moment when he first encountered a different type of categorization for homosexuals. This categorization was more in line with how he identified himself, so he was gravitated toward media that helped strengthen his queer identity. External categorizations that are more or less the same as an existing group identity will generally reinforce each other (Jenkins, 1994).
Ibrahim didn’t have an Arabic word to describe his internal attraction to other men. “Just, I knew that I liked men. That I just didn't have any kind of word. I called it sometimes my big secret.” Therefore Ibrahim used the Internet to watch pornography, not only satisfy his sexual arousal, but to also learn more about being gay. This went beyond external categorization, it was a process of observation, symbolism, and imagination. He soon realized that there was more to gay culture than just sex.
I watched porno, yeah, pornography, but I did not know that there was actually a whole community there. I just knew it was just sexual, that's it. I had no idea of anything in a whole community. If I knew there was a gay community I would definitely be more attracted to there, but I did not grow up with that. I did not realize that that actually exists. So it was late, like in my 20s, I figured out that there is an actual community of gays and I'm just part of it, but I don't know.
Ibrahim stated that the Internet was censored and most of the pornographic sites were blocked. “I used to get a VPN, bypass the whole block thing. I used to download pictures, movies, whatever it is, I don't know, just get my information over there.” Aside from pornography, Ibraham also began to explore gay websites and chatrooms online. Websites can foster a sense of safety and community for LGBTIs living in areas of the world that are less tolerant of their sexuality (Kuntsman, 2007), and Ibrahim recalls using the Internet to communicate with other gay men: 129
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So between 2004 and 2007 I was in the therapy and in 2006, I downloaded an application or program on my laptop called Paltalk. It contains rooms from all over, and more specifically in the Middle East. There was the gay and lesbians rooms in the Middle East and in the gulf region. So I found a room of 500 men just [chuckles] flashing their thing on cams and looking for other men to fuck with them. This was like heaven just opens right in front of me.
He also named another website, ManJam, as a popular site where Middle
Eastern men would chat, exchange pictures, and arrange sexual encounters. Men in
Iraq and the United Emirates messaged him more than any others. Because Ibrahim had been tricked online and forced to attempt sex with a prostitute, he knew the dangers associated with hook-ups:
This is very risky and there are people who have profiles telling you to be aware, don't just go to that person – not before seeing his picture, before talking to him on the phone – you have to have several issues and several things to do before you actually go to that person and talk to them. I never hooked up in Baghdad, although there are lots of hot men. You want to grab on somebody and just take him home with you, but you just can't.
As mentioned in the Chapter One, surveillance by regimes of power, most often governments, in an important issue for gay men (Warf &Vincent, 2007). Here,
Ibrahim demonstrates that policing of gay behavior extends beyond municipal authorities and is placed in the hands of community members.
Reza was also cautious with his Internet use at school. In his adolescent years, he realized he was different from the other boys in school and was attracted to males.
Reza recalls visiting gay websites to explore:
Yes, in high school. Still I was very scared because I know, “Okay, the government is tracking which website I'm visiting.” Usually they block or filter those websites, but some of them are open so I could go. But I was very nervous, I was scared. “Oh my god, now police will come and arrest me because they know I watched these gay websites.” I used to save some of the 130
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guys pictures in a specific folder in my computer. We had one computer, which we were sharing with my brother and sister, so I was hiding those pictures somewhere so nobody could see.
Like Ibrahim, Reza used virtual private networks or VPNs as he became more experienced with the Internet. He was then able to access Facebook and YouTube and search the Internet with less fear of being caught. As is discussed in greater detail below, English literacy allowed the gay refugees/asylees to read articles published in other countries. This aligns with the research of Papaioannou & Olivos (2013), who found that Libyans used Facebook to bypass government regulations and censorship.
Nassim used the Internet to search for gay-friendly areas in cities he planned to visit:
I knew about gay life in USA and Europe and everything. Because I'm a hair stylist I used to travel to Italy, to Spain, to London. I have been to Toni and Guy Academy in London for three or four times. Before I go there, I search for the gay places and the gay community where they are and I go. I visit them every time. Even when I came to New York before, I searched. Even my friends told me about that too, but I looked for my own search.
In line with Puar’s research (1994), Nassim used media to find more accepting places in other countries. Although his peers made suggestions, his concern for safety led
Nassim to conduct his own research and trust the media rather than his friends. Like
Nassim, Marwan used his home Internet connection in Syria to search for global regions that were more accepting of gays. He was, however, looking for permanent places to make a new life, not just visit:
I looked at Australia mostly. They put lots of advertisements and I think there are lots of magazines out there online and they advertise themselves as a country where they celebrate equality. So there were lots of articles that I read and it was easy because there's an immigration law for people to come to 131
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Australia and Canada – which is much easier than the States. I felt like, “Yeah, that could be a place for me because of all this media that I'm reading and all this equality thing.” And I didn't know – when I read these articles – I didn't know what I called the man at that time, because I was like in my early 20s and the Internet was brand new. So you can imagine reading articles on dial-up, which is where you need to wait an hour for the last page to load. So there [were] limited resources, but I could see some images here and there that would indicate that there are open gay life in Australia and open gay life in Canada – more than States. The States there were still debate on some states that would give the rights to LGBT people or not. So I kind of concluded that it may not be the best place to go.
Some of the interviewees indicated they used mobile phones in their native countries pre-asylum. Nassim mentioned, “I would watch that on YouTube on my phone or something, but I would not let anyone see what I'm watching.” He would travel with his phone and laptop and Google information as he needed it, both for information and for leisure. Nassim’s comments also point toward a general trend toward greater smartphone use. A recent global survey by Pew Research Center has shown a greater adoption of smartphone use in emerging economies, indicating a sixteen percent increase in 2015 from 2013 (Poushter, 2016).
English & Computer Literacy
One of the main catalysts for Internet and social media use was English literacy. Mahdi started taking private lessons at age six and learned English before he learned Farsi. This not only gave him an advantage in school, but also aided in his personal inquiries online. Mahdi, like most of the refugees I interviewed, came to terms with his sexuality through Western terms and concepts, “I didn't know until I was 18, the term itself. I knew English, so I knew the technical term, which was homosexual. But I had no idea that there is a term called gay.” 132
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Just as Mahdi, Reza started learning English at an early age in Iran. For him, it was something his family instilled as requisite for a well-educated individual.
I started learning when I was six or seven years old because we had some relatives that's like me. They came to US many years ago as a student and then they went back. So then my parents asked them to teach us English. From when we were kid, already it was in our family. They said, “Oh, you have to go to western countries for your education.” Because some of my relatives, uncles, aunts, they did the same thing.
Marwan’s experiences in Syria were similar. His English skills and computer literacy helped him better understand being gay and internalize his desires:
Yeah. I was always in search for things that would accept me, so Arabic was not the best language to express myself, my sexuality, so I escaped to English and I started to learn it from a young age. I studied English translation too, so that helped me more to understand the culture and understand these articles – or the books. And I started with Wikipedia, so I understand sexuality more, and gender expression, and gender orientation, and stuff like that. So there was no source out of the get go, but I started to translate some, and I'm proud I translated few articles.
It’s important to note that Internet access is not something that is easily accessible to everyone. Marwan explained that the Internet penetrated Syria in 1998 and was utilized mainly by business professionals and others who were permitted,
“they could be given permission by the secret police in Syria, or the government itself, because they need to monitor you and everything that you do, so it was not available for everybody.” There was also the additional matter of cost as Marwan recounts, “It was so expensive. I think if we compare to dollars, or convert to dollars it's something-
- for a 265 kilobytes connection for DSL, it was more than $200 of comparing with the income and the country's conversion rate.” After 2000, access and cost became more widespread. Around 2005, Marwan recalls DSL being introduced in the capital city 133
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and then it slowly spread to other provinces. Reza’s province received DSL in 2006.
Equity and access continue to be issues that most gay individuals face globally.
Asylum Seeking
There are two Iranian refugee organizations that aid in the asylum process.
Mahdi devoted some time in his interview to describe the organizations:
Actually for Iranians there are two organizations that [were] started by earlier refugees, earlier Iranian refugees, who went through the same process years ago. They started organizations and they keep this line of connecting with people through Iran. I think the underground network just passes on the information. You know there are two people, they are very famous names even in the media – they are the Farsi-speaking media. One of them is really famous. So if you are gay, and then you are connected to other people, then you definitely hear their names. And you know that, well, there's a way for you to get away and go make it out, actually. That's how it begins, but then you can just log on to the Internet and search for information.
Because the organizations are well-established, Iranian LGBTIs are well aware of their presence. Mahdi indicated that their website is well-known to Iranian gay men, particularly, and that their messages are pretty clear and straight forward. The websites
“tell them exactly where to go, what to do, and so you’re pretty much all set if you’re
Farsi speaking.” He indicated that while the majority of the websites are in Farsi, there are also many English-language websites available.
Although a majority of the participants indicated that they had sought asylum from outside the U.S., a few came to the United States first and then applied for asylum from within. Nassim visited the U.S. from Lebanon, “I just came as a visitor, and I felt that gay life was much better here, so I decided to stay here and apply for asylum.” Nassim’s trip to San Francisco, however, was not coincidental. He
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communicated with another refugee who had been granted asylum in the U.S. and fostered a relationship of trust.
So we used to chat as he was here [U.S.] and as I was in Lebanon. He was like, “If you want to come to New York or San Francisco, you have to do asylum.” I knew about that before, but he was supporting me what to do and he took me – when I came here – he took me to his lawyer, and that's my lawyer now.
Nassim was allowed to stay in the U.S. because he started the asylum process; he was still awaiting his initial interview as this dissertation was written. Nassim’s online communication was with another refugee and not with an NGO or other refugee- focused organizations. Although Nassim utilized a mediated channel, a majority of the asylum information he received was from other gay refugees/asylees.
For Mahdi and Nassim interpersonal communication was more central to their asylum seeking, than was media. Reza also utilized interpersonal communication with individuals living within the U.S. His journey to the United States was prompted by his education:
The main reason actually was because I wanted to continue my studies. I had a Bachelor's degree in Iran, so I came to the U.S. for my PhD studies. So that was main reason, but I had other reasons and one of them was because I was gay in Iran and I couldn't do anything. I feel that I'm different but I didn't do anything gay because I was afraid. Also, I wanted to come to a free country to experience new culture, new life.
While in the States, Reza communicated online with other gay men and started a relationship with an individual he met online. That individual convinced Reza to pursue asylum:
The first few years I even never thought of asylum, obviously, I didn't know. So it was just studying. My plan was after studying, find a job, get a work visa, and then get a green card through that. That's a regular process as a student. 135
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But then, after a few years, I dated the first gay person in Ohio and he told me about his story. So he first introduced to me.
Reza then spoke with some other gay Iranian friends and one same-sex couple he knew introduced him to an Iranian lawyer. Reza met with him, paid over $4,000, submitted his documentation, and had an interview scheduled a month later. His asylum was approved a month and a half after the interview. For Reza, the process was quick. Most refugees aren’t as fortunate, including Ibrahim.
Ibrahim explained to me that his situation was a drawn out process. Ibrahim tried for several years to gain asylum by applying directly to counties such as France,
Canada, and Australia. He was rejected by every government. He then contacted the
Iraq Refugee Assistance Program (IRAP), an organization based in New York, but with offices in Abu Dhabi where Ibrahim filed paperwork. The IRAP assigned him a lawyer to mediate his interactions with the UNHCR. He waited for almost a year and heard nothing. During his wait, he applied to visit San Francisco for bear week29, an event he found online while researching gay cities in the United States. Ibrahim fell in love with the city and its openness toward homosexuality. He made contact with a lawyer with whom he arranged another trip to San Francisco so that he could apply for asylum from within the U.S. He recollects the frightening, and dangerous process:
I'm still in Dubai, I'm planning to come to the United States as a refugee. Now he told me that if the immigration officer is there, the moment you tell him that you are a refugee and you went there as an asylee, he will detain you. That you're going for detention, that's definite or not, it depends. Now, if there was an immigration officer at the airports you might be lucky and the immigration
29 Bear week is a yearly event held in San Franciso that caters primarily to individuals who identify themselves as bears or bear chasers. Other LGBT individuals are welcomed at the event. 136
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officer will just grant you the status and just go, or just pending, or whatever it is. Or they will send you to a kind of an immigration prison, I guess, and you will be detained maximum for two weeks and sometimes they will ask for a bail or a bond for somebody to bond you out, for somebody who lives here [U.S.] who is either a citizen or a resident. So at that time I knew my friend Matthew, he's a therapist. He has a therapy clinic on Castro. I told him, “This is what's going to happen or might going to happen to me at the airport. So what I want you to do is to pay the bond to get me out.” I sent him $2,000 and we organized on when am I going to land in San Francisco and he won't have any patients.
Luckily for Ibrahim, he made it through airport security with no problems, “so when I reached here I was pretty nervous and when I went there, he said, is it business or pleasure? I said, just pleasure. Stamped it. Get up. That's it.” Few other refugees, gay or not, have enjoyed this type of fortune.
Ibrahim also helped me understand the asylum process and explained the various outcomes of an asylum application:
When they do an interview, they give you three answers. They give you total approval, or a recommended approval, or they transfer your case to the immigration judge. A total approval that means you are totally approved, you get the work permits immediately, healthcare, Medicare, whatever it is. You are here, you're fine. Recommended approval – you are okay as per the immigration. We're just letting the FBI to screen you, and then we'll give you the total approval.
Ibrahim received recommended approval and was awaiting his social security number at the time of writing. He credits a friend in San Francisco for his good fortune with the lawyer; and because of that he offers his lawyer’s contact information to other refugees. He stated that others are always asking about his rapid progression through the asylum system. The length of the process varies by applicant, and some are randomly selected for priority processing (Immigration Equality, n.d.). Of course not
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all refugees/asylees can expect the same type of progression through the system as
Ibrahim.
The asylum process is long and drawn out for most applicants, during which time many refugees constantly struggle with their identity. Mahdi explains:
A refugee's considered a U.S. person. It takes time for you to develop all the identity because you don't have the legal documentation. You just have a stamp in your I94 that says, “This person is authorized to live in the United States for an indeterminate period.” That's all they say. The rest is up to you to go after information, to find all those bits and pieces of who you are and what is the ground you are standing on. That's kind of difficult. In many areas you aren't accepted as a citizen, as you are not a citizen. I don't have an American passport yet and I don't even have a green card – that happens after a year. So legally you're still confused about what you are.
Mahdi’s comment demonstrates the relationship between Jenkins’ (1994) internal and external moments of the dialectic of identification. There is a significant influence of external definition on internal definitions. The ways in which the U.S. government categorized Mahdi directly influenced how he self-identified. There was not a clear- cut categorization and at moments Mahdi experienced dissonance between categorizations. Even in his country of asylum, Mahdi was still struggling with who he was. Identity, as demonstrated here, is a constant on-going process.
Pre-asylum Identity
In their native countries, the gay refugees/asylees did not identify with the external categorizations imposed upon them by regimes of power, family, and community. The power dynamic pressured the categorized LGBTIs to resist categorization. Jenkins (2000) argues that this resistance, demonstrated through the attempt at autonomy and self-identification, is an effect of categorization. “The 138
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rejected external definition is internalized, but paradoxically, as a focus of denial” (p.
21). The categorizations still exist, however they are not internalized by the gay refugees/asylees.
The above accounts are also indicative of what Jenkins (1994) calls primary identities, which are directly shaped by primary socialization. This socialization is established in the exchange of communication between the gay refugees/asylees and the authoritative figures during their formative years. Their parents, elders, community, and government told them who they should be. These primary identities are deeply rooted in the men’s first encounters within a social world; they are “robust and resist easy change or manipulation” (Jenkins, 2000, p. 14). The gay refugees/asylees are embedded within this social world that views acts of same-sex intimacy as devious and punishable and sets up a “normative” way of being, which is unequivocally heteronormative. These negative meanings are then internalized by the individuals and used in the identification process. These formative years of socialization are essential in categorization and provide the foundation for an individual’s receptivity to being categorized in subsequent periods of the individual’s life (Jenkins, 2000). Most importantly, it provides the gay man with his foundational identity from which he negotiates his further identities in relation to his future interactions, specifically in secondary socialization.
Secondary socialization, as argued by Jenkins (2000), may contribute to life- course evolutions, especially before the commencement of social adulthood, along with other identifications. As illustrated by the accounts of the interviewees, it was 139
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during this period of secondary socialization in their adolescence that they began to utilize media in an effort to explore their same-sex desires. Whether it was within their established institutions of education or informally among peers, the gay men were introduced to digital spaces, such as the Internet and social media, that allowed them to interact with content and other individuals that provided counter narratives of categorization to those they encountered through primary socialization. These new categorizations were then internalized and, along with a process of identification, were exercised in shaping identity. Specifically, Western categorizations of “gay” and
“queer” were introduced to the gay refugees/asylees.
Chapter Conclusion
What the preceding accounts all describe is a pejorative conceptualization of same-sex intimacy in the homelands of the gay refugees/asylees. Pejorative categorizations of LGBTIs in general are manifested in the national laws and governmental organizations and then policed by community members. These negative inferences of what is to be gay are also reified in the traditional media, which is controlled by regimes of power. Whatever the exact reason for the regulations, whether it be to a neocolonial opposition to the West (Altman, 2002; Awwad, 2010), a preservation of traditional masculinity (Najmabadi, 2005; Massad, 2002), or religion
(Al-Haqq Kugle, 2003; Hidayatullah, 2003), the result was a cultural hegemony of homophobia and homonegativity. These categorizations were also consequential and the interviewees recounted instances of maltreatment, violence, and even murder.
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Also manifested in the interviews was the identity of same-sex desire without a name. The gay refugees/asylees utilized mediated channels, particularly the Internet and social media, to research concepts of same-sex intimacy. Through this research, they found and adopted a Western ‘gay’ identity. The gay men then began to internalize more positive categorizations of gay. The national media reified homophobia and negative categorizations, so the gay men were drawn to Western and international media. Beyond categorization, media also fostered a process of observation and symbolism for the gay refugees/asylees. Although some asylum seeking was conducted though mediated channels, a majority of asylum information came from interpersonal contacts.
Finally, media use was facilitated by English skills and computer literacy. A majority of the interviewees indicated that they learned English in their early, formative years. Coupled with computer literacy, this gave the gay refugees/asylees an advantage of information seeking and directly influenced their gay identities. Pre- asylum identity was an amalgamation of primary and secondary socializations in the interviewee’s respective native country.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE QUEER DIASPORA & POST-ASYLUM IDENTITY
The queer diaspora of the Castro provided a tangible space for the gay refugees/asylees to engage and interact with other queer individuals, thus affecting how they negotiated a post-asylum identity. It also, as mentioned in the previous chapter, afforded a non-threatening environment to be interviewed face-to-face. I asked the individuals to expand on their lived experiences and the role communication, both mediated and interpersonal, played in their everyday lives.
This chapter elucidates the central themes and findings related to the gay refugee/asylee participants in their interviews. The chapter provides information and context on how the participants used mediated and interpersonal communication in their country of refuge and asylum. In a post-asylum context, emphasis is placed on communication in order to acculturate, preserve transnational ties, and seek information for asylum and permanent residency.
Diasporas
Mahdi stated that it was very difficult for Iranians to comprehend the idea of
“gay,” and that even those in more recent generations who moved from Iran still didn’t fully understand the concept. I spoke to him about a colleague of mine from Iran and the difficulty she had accepting my sexual orientation in the formative months of our friendship. Mahdi responded, “picture her reaction to your coming out and multiply it times 200. That’s the Iranian diaspora here in California, at least the first and second
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generation diaspora. The third and fourth are much better at tolerance and acceptance.
Now multiply it times 1000. That’s the Iranians still in Iran. That’s where I come from.”
As suggested by Mahdi, homophobia from the homeland is carried over to the diaspora. This is one of the main reasons why LGBTI refugees often do not settle in areas heavily populated by non-LGBTIs from their respective countries. Reza also saw this homophobia with other Iranian students living in the U.S.:
Okay now I wanted to live in a free country. What's the difference? Still I have to pretend, I have to hide. And then those people [non-LGBTIs in U.S.] actually expressed negative things about gay people even they have more contact with gay people. In Iran, people don't see them so they don't talk about them. But here in my lab we had like two gay students. My other Iranian friends they come during lunch and they tell stories, “Oh, he did this,” or “he act like this,” or “he wear that,” or whatever. And then people start asking, “How did they do this? How did they have sex with each other?” He [gay student] had a boyfriend and my Iranian friend said, “so these are the sick people.” Or like they comment negatively even they were not religious, they were kind of educated – they came to the U.S. – still they had those like negative ideas. So when I was sitting there, they were discussing gays. I know that if I tell I am gay they would have a negative reaction. So I thought, “Okay, I cannot do this.”
Even when Reza moved to California, he still stayed away from heterosexual Iranians, saying, “No, I don't want to have a contact with Iranians anymore, because I'm coming to San Francisco to experience the freedom. So when I came I avoid all the Iranian friends and relatives or whatever. Still I'm avoiding them.”
Ibrahim describes an interaction he had with a fellow Middle Easterner in San
Francisco, post-asylum:
Yeah. I was in the Castro and I ordered Uber somewhere in the city. And the Uber driver was Jordanian and he was like, “Oh, you're Iraqi,” and started 143
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talking all about gays. And he said, “What were you doing in the Castro? What are you doing there?” “I was with my friends.” He was like, “Oh, okay.” And it's honestly like why are you in that place. I was like, “I'm here. You are in a gay city. What the fuck do you want?” Yeah, I stay away from Middle Eastern people, straight Middle Eastern – especially straight because I have no power of going back into the closet just because to please their stupid minds!
Ibrahim’s categorizations of Americans, particularly those residing in San Francisco, are more favorable than his categorizations of Middle Easterners. Due to this, his internalization of how they will categorize him directly affects his own self- identification (Jenkins, 1994). He forms a group identity with San Franciscans that has tolerance and acceptance as a commonly-held value. Ibrahim specifically stated, “For me, I don’t normally mix with Middle Eastern people. I don't look for any straights because straight Middle Eastern people are pretty homophobic.” He admittedly knows other Middle Eastern gay refugees/asylees, however, his past has tainted his view of his culture or origin.
But I know Nassim. I know the Middle Eastern group, but I don't normally mix with them. I mix with anybody else because if I saw them, of course, I'll be with them, but it's not specifically with them. They're not a priority people or a priority group that I need to be with them, but it's just whoever is there I just hook up with them or I just go out with them. It doesn't matter.
Ibrahim also mentioned that his lawyer was introduced to him through interpersonal networks: “I made connections I made friends. So I made a friend who's Persian. And his lawyer – because he's also a refugee – his lawyer is also an Iranian.” These networks help the refugees get in contact with vital resources and services.
Even though the gay refugees/asylees preferred to interact with other gay individuals (regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religion), there was still an evident
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attraction to interact with other LGBTIs who shared cultural commonalities with them.
Reza explains:
I would say I know many gay Americans, but very few of them I see as real friends – they are like a far friend. The people that I feel much more as a friend are Middle Eastern friends. So those group of people are my real friends. I would imagine if like there are more cultural, like my culture. It's easier for me to communicate or feel closer. However, Americans are nice – I like them. I'm a shy person, but I'm very social so I have difficulty to get close connection with people or keep my contacts – and sometimes I feel with American I have less in common. I don't watch TV much so my interests are different from them.
Reza’s commentary demonstrates how interaction within the diaspora influences how he identifies with others occupying it. Human collectivity is the product of interaction between embodied individuals (Jenkins, 2002b). Reza consciously identified collective characteristics with Middle Eastern LGBTIs, therefore he formed a group identity with them. As demonstrated in Chapter Six, many of the other interviewees felt the same way and collectively recognized their membership in a Middle Eastern
LGBTI group. There appears to be a hierarchy among intersectional identities and cultural preferences: Middle Eastern LGBTIs, all gays, non –LGBTI San Franciscans, heterosexuals in the diaspora.
Reza didn’t know any gay Middle Easterners living in San Francisco when he first arrived. He met an American same-sex couple online and ultimately ended up meeting them in person. They became friends and frequently had lunch or dinner.
They first introduced him to the idea of searching for other Middle Eastern LGBTIs:
“Oh, Reza, there is a gay Middle Eastern party in San Francisco in whatever club.” I said, “Okay, let's go because I may meet Iranian gays there.” So I went there. That was like a starting point. I started to meet more, I went to more 145
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events and then it get bigger and bigger – my [gay] Middle Eastern community. There was an official organization which the name was BBSF, which actually their founder was Iranian gay person. So he had these club parties, picnics, and events, and raising money… like in 2013, they start. He moved to San Diego, so they kind of stopped their organization. Then actually I volunteered to continue. So I tried to do some event but I wasn't successful. At the same time, one other person, Iraqi guy, he start his own Middle Eastern party. Now, it's his organization, kind of, but his party's not like your official organization – just unofficial so you would call it maybe social group or something.
Of course for Reza, these individuals still had to be gay, “Here almost all of my friends or whoever I know are gay. And whatever I do is gay.” Being gay was the most salient part of his identity and something he wanted to explore and preserve in his post-asylum life.
San Francisco as a Symbol
The Middle East did not provide a safe or supportive environment for the refugee participants to cultivate their gay identity. All of the participants, with one exception, did not have any type of sexual experiences until they left their native countries. Turkey’s liminal space provided Marwan an opportunity to initiate his physical negotiation with his feelings of same-sex attraction.
Well, I was figuring out my gay identity when I was in Turkey more. I was defining myself more while I was in Turkey, because that was my real introduction to the gay community. I did not have any connection or relationship while I was in Syria. In Lebanon, it was my first sexual experience, but still, it was not defining, because I was still afraid and still ashamed of myself. So going to Turkey I was doing more, interacting more with the gay community through my friend, who was like the chief editor of the magazine that I used to work with. He was pretty confident guy, very in love with his life and I was looking up to him, because I've never seen any gay in my short period of experience at that moment as happy, as proud of himself as he is. I started to look up to him as I had to process my emotions, my feelings and started to be wanting to become myself more. I want to 146
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experiment with my body, with my feelings, with everything. The process started in Turkey and it continued here.
Marwan’s own sexual identity was inspired through interactions with his more confident gay friend which helped him understand and shape his own gay identity.
Marwan’s arrival to the U.S., much less San Francisco, was pure coincidence as he explains:
At the beginning, I was thinking of either Canada or Australia. They both were an option, but after the war, I didn't know what to do exactly, so I was just following my gut. I didn't know what to do, because there are no visas for Syrians anymore. So it's like, “Okay, let's just survive, find an appropriate job, and, just wait.” I didn't know that I would end up in the U.S.
For the other gay refugees/asylees, however, San Francisco was a well- researched choice and a symbol of freedom and hope to many of the refugees. Nassim commented, “I always heard about San Francisco. Even before I came to USA, I always heard like all my friends that visited USA – so that was because it was the capital of the gays – so I chose here and I'm feeling myself much more here.” Nassim also joked that he knew about the Castro’s famous gay club 440 before he even arrived. Nassim’s occupation as a hair dresser had allowed him to travel throughout
Europe for training and hairshows. He was able to compare San Francisco to other cities having similar gay enclaves. He commented, “Even in USA is much better for they are into it more – not like Europe. Europe have gay life, but not like USA. USA have the best gay life.”
Ibrahim recalls, “I chose San Francisco because I know that Northern
California has the highest rates of acceptance to refugees – especially to gay refugees.
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And I don't have to wait as long as the rest of the states.” San Francisco provides an outlet for the gay refugees/ayslees to express their sexuality, a tangible space to perform and communicate their identity. Equally, the city directly influences and shapes how the individuals think about and view themselves. Ibrahim elaborated:
I want to live a normal life – it's being open, not afraid. This is the most important thing I have, not to be afraid of having a date and if I'm grabbing his hands in the middle of the road and not getting any homophobic shitheads telling me, “No, you can't do that.” I wouldn't have to worry about that. So I'm pretty sure that I might have that in New York, but it's less likely to happen here.
For Reza, he knew he wanted to move to San Francisco at an early age. He recalled seeing images of the Bay Area and thinking, “San Francisco is such a liberal city, gay-friendly.” Reza went as far as searching for images of San Francisco online:
I remembered that I wanted to see, “Oh, how does it look in California, San Francisco, there's ocean.” I wanted to see where the ocean starts, so then I used the Google Street. So that part I saw when I was in Iran from Google Maps. So then three years ago when I came I drove, suddenly I remembered. I said, “Oh, my God. I've seen this before.”
The Internet provided a sense of place. Reza, who once feared for his life when walking the streets of Iran, now finds comfort and safety on the streets of the Castro.
“Oh, I never would imagine my first march in gay pride New York and then next year march in San Francisco. But then after that, the next two years, '14 or '15, I marched with the Middle Eastern group.” Now marching in the parade is a yearly tradition for
Reza, he walks in solidarity with other LGBTIs and gay refugees from the Middle
East. Reza told me that he was looking through his teenage diary and ran across a
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drawing he had made of the Golden Gate Bridge, “that was my dream – then I was a teenager – to come to San Francisco!”
Like the other interviewees, Mahdi identified San Francisco as liberating and conducive to his personal growth.
Yeah, I think I'm very much inclined to somehow expand that identity to all the possible areas of life. That's exactly why I couldn't live back in Iran, because there – apart from the fact that you feel threatened for your life and then you grow a thick skin for it after some time – you get numbed to that level of threat. But, still, it's like you just want to grow and everything just pushes you back in. Here there’s that urge to expand.
The aforementioned comments highlight San Francisco’s status as an important symbol for LGBTIs world-wide. This meaning for the city was created through interactions with media, and through mediated interactions, pre-asylum, with others who lived or had visited San Francisco. Post-asylum interactions with other individuals and institutions reaffirmed the city’s status and meaning (Jenkins, 2002b).
Also, being in San Francisco changed how the gay refugees/asylees think and feel about their identity. There were more positive categorizations and behaviors toward them, therefore they came to think in more positive terms about the gay facet of their identities.
Advocacy
A common theme among the interviewees was using mediated and interpersonal communication for advocacy, rather than asylum exclusively. Reza stated, “I tell them my experience or give them guidance, but not really advocate for asylum.” Ibrahim responded in a similar fashion, “I share. For example, Lebanon
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posted they started to make this movement for gay rights in Lebanon. They did several videos on gay rights and sometimes I share it and I put it on mine. Lebanon is more progressive than anybody else.” By sharing videos online, Ibrahim is contributing material that LGBTIs in his region of origin can use to create meaning and negotiate elements of their identities.
Most of the gay refugees/asylees posted information specific to their country.
Ibrahim stated, “in one of the groups on Facebook, there's an Iraqi group – the Iraqi people in the United States. People ask for lawyers, so I always refer them to my lawyer, and I just do that. So I help them sometimes.” The accuracy of information shared online was also important to the refugees, as Marwan explains:
They [international news outlets] may not understand system or the dynamics of the country, so they may share it out of good will. But for me as a person, I may look at it, read it – that's not the truth. I may go send them a message saying that this article, this and that, but I will not share it. But other articles yeah, I feel that it represent the truth and that the story is well told or there's no bias in it, of course.
Marwan, like some other refugees, took a more active approach to advocacy by using the Internet and social media to collect money to provide goods and services for other LGBTI refugees. Specifically, Marwan focused his efforts on those LGBTI refugees who were stuck in liminal and transitional spaces in the migration process, such as Turkey. During his most recent Facebook campaign when we spoke, to buy food cards for refugees in Turkey, Marwan collected over $2,000. Mahdi, who works in the same office as Marwan, shared posts on Facebook to help the efforts.
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Marwan’s advocacy constituted a vital part of his identity since he left Syria.
While in transition, he lived in Lebanon and Turkey, where he participated in the creation of an LGBT magazine. He and coworkers used the Internet to disseminate articles they wrote themselves. Marwan offers some insight into his passion:
In the MENA Region, which is the Middle East and North Africa, we've been silent the entire era or century. Nobody wants to speak. Nobody wants to advocate. Nobody wants to do anything. They're all underground and all the homophobic people are just out there in the media doing whatever they want. Recently, they released like lots of videos – want to kill us and bury us, treat us as animals, burns us, do whatever. And this is not from my country, and they are not at war, they are at peace when they're talking like that. So if you came to my country, being gay, you are thrown off buildings, you're stoned to death by children and their parents – and that's celebrated. I wanted to do something about it.
Marwan’s passion for advocacy is also exemplified by the following quote: “I can understand how important it is for me to do the work that I'm doing now with them, so people would really have hope and continue to live, go on, and until they reach safety.” Marwan emphasizes the importance of connecting directly to with gay refugees’ lived experiences, “Helping people – I was in their position not so long ago
– and try to get them to where I am now, it's very meaningful I think from my perspective. It's very essential and without people that really supporting me while I was in Turkey and Lebanon, that would be very, very difficult for me – because you're in the unknown.”
Interestingly, most of Marwan’s correspondences with other LGBTIs living in the MENA region is in Arabic and not in English:
Well social media now in Syria-- anytime people are communicating with me, they're mostly – mostly they speak Arabic, so they communicate in Arabic. 151
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There are a fair amount of them that speak English, but they would feel more comfortable talking in Arabic. Recently, the States were giving them text sims. So I don't know how this whole thing work, but lots of Syrians communicating with me from Syria. They had the plus one number, especially the State numbers, and they can only text. You cannot call the numbers. And the same company or corporation provided them with that, they provided them with wireless apps. So you can subscribe monthly and pay a small amount of money that anybody can afford now, and they have wireless coverage. I have no idea how they are doing it. I did not ask. But yeah, now lots of people are communicating through their smartphones and it's very, very essential to communicate. Most of them are communicating in Arabic. You don't feel comfortable in English anyway.
In Chapter Seven, Marwan stressed the importance of English skills in his online search for information on gay concepts and asylum. Here, he demonstrates his proactive approach in helping individuals who either do not know English or are not comfortable speaking in English. Marwan also highlights the importance of smart phone use and texting in asylum searching. In order to better help his gay community back in Syria, he adapts to their language and mediated platforms.
NGOs & Organizations
Actively participating in an organization or NGO also compelled some of the refugees to be more active and engaged with advocacy. Reza explains,
I cannot freely be an active person to help other gay people openly. That's a challenge. But then - as I said - for this organization I volunteered, I try for six months. I organized two events, a picnic, an evening night in a bar in San Francisco, I tried that. I marched in gay pride. I always try to advertise or help to organize our event. Then some of the topics come up online, like I put comments, share the links, try to make people comfortable, accept this concept.
While in Turkey, Marwan used the Internet to research ORAM, specifically its programs and its personnel. He became interested in the NGO, initiated contact, and started to work there shortly after. He explains, “Without ORAM, I don't think I would 152
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have been doing this in first place. So, I credit ORAM for that.” The NGO afforded
Marwan increased stature and impact as an activist, “because ORAM made it international more, and gave me the platform to have my voice-- to be more authentic when I speak. If I was an activist, without the support of an organization, people might not take you as seriously as being with an organization that, with like ORAM reputation, because they have very good reputation. So that really supported my activism and my advocacy.”
Marwan’s identity is also being molded by his relationship with the organization:
Of my identity post-asylum, I would say ORAM takes huge portion out of it because I was here and I was framed, working with them. So most of my interaction with the society and the community here in the Bay Area was through ORAM. So, people might see me as ORAM child, or the poster child for ORAM, but for me, accepting myself, trying to heal, trying to process all this information, and a new lifestyle, people – the Castro. I'm still processing. I'm still in the process of healing, stuff like that. But I would say that this is a part of me I would like to keep away from all this – like organization work, organization people. I would like to keep my personality for me, and to avoid mixing my. I want to be identified as a person, like I say, people would always say, “Marwan the refugee.” In a few months I won't be, because I will be a permanent resident of California. They will call me a resident, not a refugee, legally. But I don't want to be defined forever until my 80s and 70s or whatever, as a refugee. But you know it's difficult.
Marwan’s comments illustrate just how his categorization by others affects his post- asylum identity. He internalizes these categories, and regardless of how he reshapes his identity, his identification as a refugee is still salient because others still categorize him as such (Jenkins, 1994).
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In a similar fashion, Mahdi’s identity is not only shaped by his migration experience and his new home, but also by the organization he works for:
I think being gay is always there, especially living in San Francisco. And working for an organization where most of the people are LGBT, it's always there. I would never have imagined in my life to work in a place where my boss was gay, and the board members were [chuckles] gay. So that's a very satisfying touch. So being gay's always there whatever you do. And being a refugee's always in my face, because some places you go and they just say, “Okay, so what are you? What's your illegal status here?” I have to say, “Sorry, I'm a refugee.”
Jenkins (1994) argues that occupational identity is among the most important social identities. As Marwan’s and Mahdi’s experience indicates, their affiliation with an
NGO that helps LGBTI refugees and asylees goes beyond providing the base for their livelihood. The NGO provides a platform of voice and advocacy, a social institution facilitating interaction with other likeminded individuals, one which fosters an essential shared symbolic universe.
Legacy Media & Internet Post-Asylum
A majority of the refugees turned to television and pop culture to help them make sense out of their new home. Ibrahim laughed as he disclosed his television habits, “I did watch Glee. I did also, when I came here, I hooked up with Netflix and I was watching Queer as Folk.” Ibrahim also watched Little Britain and felt like the program played a big role in informing him about Western popular culture.
Nassim found most of his programming on pay Internet-based services. He watches on his computer, tablet, and even his mobile phone. His favorite show was
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RuPaul’s Drag Race because it was so different from what he saw in the Middle East and in his travels in Europe.
I have the XFINITY Internet Wi-Fi. I have - what was the name of that - the Netflix. I have Netflix, I watch everything. I watched all the gay movies that are not found in Lebanon, back home. They're like movies for a gay life. I only knew about one movie before, the Brokeback Mountain, that's it, because it was international. So everyone saw it, even back home. But here they have a lot of movies, and I watched like half of them until now.
Some of the participants were exposed to Western media in their native countries. As outlined in Chapter Three, globalization aided in the penetration of Western media in non-Western regions, including the Middle East (Castells, 2010). Mahdi claims he didn’t have to catch up very much when he moved to San Francisco. He told me:
Because of that early exposure that I just told you about, American culture was not a complete unknown to me. I watched a lot of movies, a lot of series. I read a lot about what's happening here and media somehow keeps this line alive. So I wasn't really far behind when I came here. But still there was lot of shock. I knew I had to change some of my concepts, because I used to live somewhere completely isolated where nothing was happening socially. My life experiences don't necessarily fit in with a society where people have been living freely and been expressing their feelings and they have formed a lifestyle around this concept. But I still think it's much here.
Mahdi used the media post-asylum to learn about American culture and to investigate how to adapt to his new environment, however, it still did not fully prepare him for his post-asylum experiences. His social interactions in the physical world helped further clarify what it meant to be gay in the U.S. Meaning was reshaped through both mediated and physical interactions (Mead, 1934).
New media was also heavily consumed by the gay refugees/asylees. All of the participants utilized the Internet more than any other media to help inform their lives
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post-asylum. For Mahdi, it is a consistent process he practices, “I'm still learning about that, like last night I was just reading about the definition of a U.S. person.” Reza’s main focus post-asylum was the Internet, “I never watched TV actually, even movies.
I didn't go to the movies much, no TV, no – mainly just Internet.” He, like others, had used the Internet to research his new home:
I joined in so many gay dating websites. Those were some parts that I could learn talking with a guy and YouTube watching these gay events. Somehow, I don't know, by chance I know like, “Oh, there's a gay week, gay weekend in San Francisco.” I was Googling, watching the videos, or gay pride. I was Googling things what it is – maybe also gay dating websites. I remember one specific guy. I was in Ohio, he was in West Virginia so it was close. He was very nice to me. We never met for many months. But all of these questions, everything that I feel very bad about myself, he helped me a lot, explain or we talked like a friend. So he was very important that it made me feel comfortable. I met him once, I went there. He invited me so I went there for a weekend. I met him.
Not only did Mahdi use the Internet for information on gay culture, he also utilized gay websites as a way to practice his English skills and as a way to practice talking with other gay men. Through his online interactions with his friend from Ohio, he was able to shape meaning to gay culture in the U.S. and, ultimately, his gay identity.
Reza states, “I didn't have any feeling for the girls. First, I thought it's based on
Islamic value, ‘Oh, I'm a good boy. They are sinners or something like that.’ As it goes I realized that there is some difference from me and other people and I always also was attracted to guys. So when we got to the Internet actually, I started to go to gay websites.” After searching the Internet, interacting with social media, and watching Western media in the U.S., Reza started to come to terms with who he was.
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Yeah, I did a lot of search. That's why, as I said, I wasn't comfortable accepting that I'm gay. I had based on whatever education they provided in Iran. I was thinking, “It's against God, I have to pray to change.” But then when I came here, I read all of these articles and watch online. That’s what helped me in a year or two year that I feel comfortable who I am. So first, I read like scientific articles but they discuss it is a disease, is it psychological, physical. Another part was just the public culture, let's say there are these kind of day like drink beer or whatever. I was reading what does that mean. I never heard sex text before, because I didn't know what's top, what's bottom. So all of those is new for me.
Reza’s commentary demonstrates how the Internet helped him not only access information on what it was to be gay (introducing him to its contextualization), but it also helped him internalize that information. He was able to change the experience of the category of gay and internalize a new meaning for the word. This is reflective of
Jenkin’s (1994) proposition that identity is both nominal (a name) and virtual (an experience). The virtual is essentially what the nominal means and can change while the nominal identity remains the same. The reverse is also true. Both the nominal and the virtual unite in an “ongoing production and reproduction of identity and its boundaries” (p. 218).
Social Media Use Post-Asylum
Facebook was the primary social networking site utilized by all of the interviewees. Ibrahim exclusively used the social media platform in his new home.
Mahdi states his Facebook profile is a constant negotiation between his advocacy with
ORAM and his own personal connections with his family and friends. When asked if he shares posts he answered: “depends what it is. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
Because it's like something in between work and personal, and if I find something that
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can somehow connect these two areas, I would do that.” For Marwan, Facebook was a better outlet to share news stories.
I don't use Twitter as much, but I use it from time to time. I think I use Facebook more. Maybe I share lots – if I see an article really represent the truth, is not biased. They may not know exactly. Sometimes, some articles we read – from my perspective as a Syrian – talks about the Syrian Crisis in a way that does not represent me. So I don't like this kind of project because I like investigatory, or I don't know what they call it.
It’s important to note that Marwan stressed the inaccuracy of most Western news stories about Syria. He felt he had better control over information exposure, sharing, and who viewed his profile on Facebook.
Reza has two Facebook accounts, “But one is my gay Facebook. The other one is my straight Facebook which is my Iranian families, relatives back in Iran, here. And
I have my gay one which has almost all the gay friends.” He aggregates his content between the two, making sure not to post too much about his gay lifestyle on his
Iranian friend and family account. As for the type of content on his other account:
Usually it's kind of a news or article like BBC or something like that. I share those in terms of Middle East. If there is any arrest of gay people in Egypt, or they want to kill them or something. Or, if there are some documentary movie online about Middle East or Iran gay people, I share those. Or I like these event that we have and I try to promote. [I] ask my other American friends to come, like for the event tomorrow. I just put my picture now and dancing the gay pride. This is me last year, come and support us, donate – so this kind of small activity.
Reza’s use of two Facebook accounts is similar to Goffman’s (1959) bounded regions of front (where a particular performance is being enacted) and back (where action occurs that is related to the performance but inconsistent with it). Both of
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he uses with his family, Reza performs a neutral sexual identity and his “gay”
Facebook account he performs a gay identity. Specifically, Goffman’s concept of idealization is at work here. Goffman states that “to the degree that a performance highlights the common official values of the society in which it occurs, we may look upon it as a ceremony – as an expressive rejuvenation and reaffirmation of the moral values of the community” (p. 35). Reza’s ‘straight’ performance allows him to present himself in a way that is congruent with the idealized, and normative, perception of the situation and his role within it.
Goffman (1959) also establishes a third outside region that encompasses the other two, a social world if you will, with outsiders who do not have access to the front or back regions. The outsiders are the other users on Facebook that have not yet friended or been friended by Reza. He categorizes the outsiders to determine which he groups with his straight Facebook account and which he groups with is gay Facebook account. He then chooses who to friend and/or whose friend requests to approve. He
“segregates his audiences so that individuals who witness him in one of his roles will not be the individuals who witness him in another of his roles” (p. 137). The outsiders are segregated depending upon their categorizations of Reza, as well.
Nassim, like the others, utilized Facebook the most, but also used Instagram as a way of sharing pictures with other gay individuals. He also stated he didn’t have separate accounts, but one main Facebook profile from which he posted everything.
He was unapologetic in his posting habits. “Not naked stuff. But yeah, gay stuff, I'm
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very fine. I tag [myself] in a gay bar or something like that or pictures or in a gym and elsewhere, is not for gay or gays or stuff, I'm so okay with that. I don't care.”
Reza’s interactions with others online helped strengthen his gay identity. He gained more confidence and started a YouTube channel once he moved to the U.S.:
Again, most of my life, first it was online. At some point I feel comfortable to make Youtube video talking about being Iranian gay. So I put them online, but I hide my face because still I was scared people would find me and kill me, or make problem for my family. So first I even didn't talk – I just showing notes, telling my story. Then I get a little brave, I get to talk, but I do not show my face. Many people gave me good comments or show their emotions to me, or whatever. And then one guy started to send messages from YouTube, and then he was in New York. He said, “Oh, I found your video because I have another friend from Tajikistan” – which is close to my country – “and he is also has same problem as you. He feels lonely. He just moved to US. He doesn't know what to do.” So we start to talk, and he was from Ohio originally. We became close friends online and he's very smart. He has a lot of interest in political views, so I feel a very good connection.
Reza’s online activity and interaction with individuals who commented on his
YouTube channel helped further shape his social identity. He internalized the positive categorizations of others and his identification with a gay identity was manifested through the videos he made online (Jenkins, 1994). Reza continues his story by explaining how the online presence turned into something face-to-face in real, physical, tangible places.
He says, “Come to New York for gay pride.” So then I was there, in Ohio. I decided, I drove, and I then met them for first time ever. It was gay pride weekend in New York. He said, “Oh, we are marching with the LGBT community center of New York.” I marched with them. It was my first pride ever, but I was marching. I didn't like watching. We dressed in like three matching shorts and whatever. So that was actually my best experience ever, because for the first time I felt free and they had like all these international gay friends from Russia, from Indonesia, Tajikistan, Peru, many places. They have many international gay friends. So I met all of those, I feel comfortable, I don't 160
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need to hide. That was kind of first time ever that I didn't need to hide that I'm gay. That's what the best – I marched and then people waved me and everyone looks so happy. It was very nice. And then I went to a club after the gay pride, big party. So that's one of the important times in my gay kind of life.
Reza’s story is reflective of experiences among all of the refugees I interviewed. Their lives were spent online, in closeted virtual spaces. They used social media in their homelands as a way to escape, learn, and interact with other members of the U.S. and international LGBTI community. Once they arrived in the U.S. they still used social media as a way to meet other gay men, however, they then turned to face-to-face interactions to foster the relationships. Interpersonal communication replaced the virtual confinements of their pasts. For example, Nassim commented:
We're friends on Facebook, so we support each other. Like it would be real life more than Facebook, we don't post about this on Facebook. In real life we meet every two to three days or every one week every weekend. So we talk about everything that happening with us. So we support each other in real life more than Facebook.
Previous research in media and communication (Kraut et al., 1998) has typically pointed to the reverse of what the refugees indicated with interpersonal and mediated communication. More frequent Internet use was associated with the loss of members in a social circle, suggesting that online interactions displace strong social ties (Sparks, 2016). Social relationships online are fostered at the expense of others.
Here, we witness the reverse. The gay refugees/asylees are utilizing media not as a way to instigate relationships in digital spaces, but as a way to nurture those that they have already formed in real-word, physical spaces. This is consistent with Reich,
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Subrahmanyam, & Espinoza (2012), who found on-line time was spent making off- line relationships stronger.
Social Media and Family Back Home
Being in an asylum-granting country didn’t always equate to projecting an gay identity on mediated platforms that were accessible to friends and family members back home. A majority of the gay refugees/asylees expressed various reactions from friends and family members back home that made them either censor or change their actions on social media. Reza stated that he wanted to openly advocate, but it was a challenge, “that's my ultimate goal and passion but there's a challenge because still I'm not out to the world. I'm just out to my mom, brother and sister in Iran.” His advocacy was confined to in-person events in San Francisco. He said, “Now I feel local. I mean
I feel comfortable if I go and talk. But global, I'm afraid. I mean afraid just because of my family. If that part is solved, then really, I don't care anymore.” This fear of family and friends finding out he was gay also triggered Reza to remove his YouTube videos:
So now I'm thinking, “Oh, my God, some of my friends Google Iranian gay or something.” Actually it was coming up one of the first things because it's YouTube video. It has thousands of views or something. So then I imagined, “If I hear my friend's voice, I can recognize him even if I don't see his face,” or my relatives. So then I thought it still is dangerous if they find out or I thought the Iranian government is very sensitive. They want to kill you or put you in jail because they will say you are advertising Western culture. So then I thought those videos are in the radar of the Iranian government also. They want to find me and arrest me because I'm spreading being gay is okay. Because of those reasons I thought maybe it's not smart, so I removed them. They are still there but I locked them so people cannot watch anymore.
Although Reza had expressed internalization of positive gay categorizations in his country of asylum, he was still aware that pejorative categorizations still existed in his 162
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native country of Iran. He did not want to bring about danger to his family back home, so he altered his behavior online and removed his YouTube videos.
Mahdi also alters his behavior online and tries to find a balance between his personal gay life, his organizational advocacy with the NGO he works for, and his apprehension of family and friends in his home country finding out about his sexuality. Each area of his life is separate, yet all are interrelated. Each affects the other:
There's still a lot of stigma connected to the issue back in Iran and I have a lot of connections, I have a lot of contacts, I have almost all my family back there in Iran, and no matter how hard you try, it's still got a backlash. If I post something really overt then I'm sure it's going to go back home so I usually go somewhere in between.
Mahdi’s commentary demonstrates the conscious effort he puts into choosing which information to post on his Facebook. Even though he’s living in the queer diaspora of
San Francisco, he is still concerned about how other family members back home categorize him. He’s still negotiating his social identity, and communication, specifically social media, gives him control over what information others are privy to.
The basic communication model of Source, Message, Channel, Receiver
(SMCR)30 can be employed as a heuristic to understand how the gay refugees/asylees use social media to communicate with family and friends back in their homeland.
There is one distinction, however: the interviewees alter the messages they post.
Although there is not a linear direction of message dissemination in social media (we
30 The SMCR model for communication was originated by Shannon and Weaver in 1949. The model can be applied to all forms of communication and used to depict the exchange of information. 163
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need to account for noise, time lags, and feedback form other social media users, among others) the model can help visualize the communication intent.
The message originates from the gay refugee/asylee and is posted for the intended receiver(s), however there is a deliberate and conscience process of reflexivity that goes into which messages to post. The sender, the gay refugee/asylee, makes a conscious effort to control how others will perceive his message, and in turn, him. Once the message is read by the receiver, there is then a reciprocal process of response on the receiver’s part. This symmetrical process of communication constitutes another interaction in which the interviewees, as well as their friends and family who receive the messages, create meaning.
In terms of censorship or balance, Ibrahim was one of the few who refused to participate in any type of negotiation when it came to the online performance of his gay identity. He stated, “Yeah, I have my mom on Facebook. I have some of my aunts in Iraq. I have some friends who are also gay in Dubai and here and Paris.” Despite their online presence Ibrahim still shared a great amount of information that was related to LGBTI and the Middle East. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Ibrahim specifically shares information that is focused on Lebanon and LGBTI rights.
Ibrahim’s categorization of Lebanon, and its inhabitants, influences what content he shares online, and also how much. Even though Ibrahim was in the U.S., he still monitored LGBTI activities in his native global region. This compliments the research of Papaioanou and Olivos (2013) who found Facebook was employed as a means to connect with the diaspora outside of Libya and foster feelings of nationalism through 164
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pictures and videos. In this sense, Ibrahim is fostering a sense of LGBTI pride and activism, in addition to nationalism, between Lebanon and the queer diaspora in San
Francisco.
In a similar fashion as Ibrahim, Nassim also posted whatever he felt like posting or sharing. His ability to control his social media communication came from monitoring his Facebook friends, rather than his messages or posts:
Yeah, just like I'm getting messages of my family now from the Facebook. I feel every family knows about their son, if they're gay or not. My brothers know about me, but my mother and father, I think they know but we've never ever talked about that – never. But still, I have many lines on my Facebook still. I post sometimes shirtless pictures, whatever. At the gay bars, I get tagged. Because my mother and family, they don't know English that much, so they don't know what they're reading or just seeing. I got some bad comments from friends in Lebanon, so I removed them from Facebook. I'm like that and I moved here because I'm like that! You don't want to accept me like that, you can just remove me from Facebook. That's it! I'm not in Lebanon anymore.
Nassim’s main goal is to be happy and he doesn’t feel the pressure from his native country or culture to conduct himself in restricted ways. The interactions of his social environment heavily influence how he identifies, specifically the interactions in the physical space of San Francisco. There are more positive categorizations in the queer diaspora, therefore they foster the sense of happiness he longs for. Online, he can simply remove a person from his friend’s list, block comments, or scroll passed their comments.
Some of these negative reactions also came from other LGBTIs in their native country. Marwan stated:
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People are happy to stay in the dark and live their own lives behind closed doors. They don't want their lives to be exposed, so they don't want anybody to speak about the plight of gay people – or the plight of gay people in Syria. They thought that me addressing about ISIS would increase the killings, which is totally crazy. I mean, they were killing you since 2012 and they continue to do that, and now the community is participating. Me talking to ISIS will not stop them, will not make them increase, will not do anything. It's the same! They will continue killing you without me being vocal about that – lots of speculations and lots of stuff like.
Marwan’s commentary is a clear example of how some LGBTIs in his home country, and arguably in other global regions, internalize the external categories thrust upon them by regimes of power. In Marwan’s eyes, these individuals are gay and he categorizes them this way. Conversely, in their internalization, they may reject
Marwan’s categorization of “gay” and identify, rather, as something else where gay is not an identity, but rather an act. Social identity is always an interplay of these internal identifications and external categorizations (Jenkins, 2000). Each individual is unique and, as demonstrated by the participants, each identifies in their own way.
Mobile Apps
Mobile phones provide a particularly personal platform from which to consume and create media. It’s a medium that is innately individualistic, yet connects each individual socially to the broad world of the Internet and social media
(Kasesniemi & Rautiainen, 2002). Ibrahim uses mobile apps on his phone as a way of meeting other gay men in his area:
Sometimes, not in Middle East, I normally find other gay people everywhere. I can’t find somebody who you would want to date on GROWLr, [it] is pretty difficult – it’s just more a hookup. So I tried doing that, I specified that in my profile, but it's just hopeless. It's just like everybody there just wants to fuck
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and that's it. Of course I still use GROWLrs, SCRUFF – not a lot of Grindr – but now Tinder is getting gay now.
Growlr was also a popular app for Nassim, directly linking to his identity as a
“bear31.” He explained, “there's the GROWLr and there's bars for bears and leather and stuff like that.” Nassim meets other bears on the mobile app and then interacts with them in person at the nightclubs. His identity as a bear was something that he cultivated online while in Lebanon, “because (in) Lebanon, they know about cubs and bears. So it's the same here. For that point, it's the same everywhere.” GROWLr and the San Francisco’s bear bars provided Nassim a space to perform his identity.
Reza also utilized the mobile gay dating apps and (after some research) came to identify with one of the gay labels, “When I let's say in Wikipedia I read inscription, so I say, “Okay, I'm an otter based on the description like body type.” Reza not only uses mobile apps to meet local people, but also to keep in touch on a daily basis with friends and family in Iran and other parts of the Middle East. At one point he used
Viber and WhatsApp, however the apps change due to government intervention. Reza explains:
Even now I am using an app, because I get texts from my friends and relatives. It's like a Vine,32all of the Iranians used this app – until they find out the government block it and then they find something else. And this one, it automatically encodes everything. So then really the government cannot do anything. They say they reach agreement with the owner of this app, so they agree to block sexual channels in their app in Iran. But still can send your own sexual pictures or political opinions, so that's kind of safe to do that. I have all
31 As mentioned in Chapter Six, bears are usually described in their physical attributes such as body hair, beards, stocky build, hyper masculine dress, and resemble heterosexual men more than the typical gay stereotypes (Wright, 1997). 32 Vine is a video-sharing app that enables users to post videos of up to six seconds. The app allows users to follow one another and post their “vines” to Twitter or embed them within a website. 167
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these apps. For a month, for a year, it's popular but then they block it nobody can use it anymore. So then they find something else.
Reza, along with his friends and family, demonstrate computer literacy by familiarizing themselves with encryption technology. This reinforces the importance of computer literacy in communicating transnationally and globally. It also demonstrates that maybe there is a higher demand for computer literacy in oppressed populations using the technology to maintain their identity through unlawful communication.
Religion
Religion plays a huge role in how Middle Easterners perceive homosexuality.
As explicated in Chapter One, religion is the basis for many of the attitudes and draconian anti-gay policies in the Middle East (Asal & Sommer, 2016; Bertrand,
2015; Fortier, 2002; Labi, 2007). Reza provides an introduction on the intersection of the two:
So it depends how religious or traditional they are. My father's side they are very religious, follow all the Islamic rules. They never talk about it, because of course, I think they believe that it's sin or it's against God or whatever. My mother's side they are much more liberal, like my cousins, we're watching about these things. But even these days – yeah – almost everywhere they have a negative feeling about gay people.
Reza read the Quran33 and came to the conclusion that he could still be Muslim and gay, but not religious. He considers himself culturally Muslim because of his heritage,
33 Quran, Qur’an, and Koran have all been utilized as spellings for the Islamic sacred book. I employ the use of the spelling ‘Quran’ because that is the spelling in English that most Muslims use (Amin, 2016). 168
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but does not practice, nor believe in, Islamic rules. He credits his education and the freedom to think for himself for this view:
Just the freedom here. I could think. Also during my Ph.D. study, my scientific parts, I reached to some conclusions. And then I would say mostly it's freedom. In my country [there’s] a lot of limitation – even education or whatever, it's in your mind that you are not allowed to think even differently. Because even thinking that if there is God or not, that's a sin. Just kind of forbidden to think different way, so even you don't have a chance to think differently. Here, the freedom, I think, slowly made me change. It wasn't like at one night that I decided to not be religious anymore. This was a slow process.
Reza’s comment demonstrates an active process of reflexivity. He didn’t just suddenly give up his Islamic faith, it was an issue he meticulously thought through. Reza also explained how being non-religious helped his mother accept his sexuality when he finally decided to come out to her:
My mom is exception. She's a very young mom in terms of age, she's - again- very liberal. She's not religious, she's very friendly. If it was regular Iranian mom, she would cry and she would tell, “Oh, you're a sinner. You're against God. Please don't do this. Please marry a girl” or something. But my mom is different, fortunately.
Reza’s mother exemplifies that subjective differences play an important role in not only the identification of the gay refugees/asylees, but also in other individuals living in the Middle East. Reza’s mother didn’t fully identify with being Muslim or conservative. She felt comfortable thinking for herself, counter to the convention in her society. Her own identification influenced how she categorized Reza and his sexuality. This, Reza told me, helped him accept his queer identity even more.
Mahdi argues that the Quran makes no direct mention of homosexuality, but conservative interpretations have been used to condemn same-sex intimacy. He felt as
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if the Quran directly criticizes promiscuity and sexual acts outside of marriage by both homosexuals and gays alike, and not specifically same-sex attraction. He feels two men can fall in love, but it’s when they physically act on that love that Iranians and most Muslims have issues with it. Mahdi’s sentiment is echoed by some scholars who agree that the Quran contains no direct regulation of same-sex intimacy, but rather addresses promiscuous acts in general (Al-Haqq Kugle, 2003; Hidayatullah, 2003).
Other scholars argue the story of Sodom and Lot (also found in Jewish and
Christian religious texts) mentioned in the Quran directly references gay behavior
(Duran, 1993). Islamic interpretations of same-sex intimacy also employ the hadith, said to contain the worlds of The Prophet Mohammed, which directly condemns any type of same-sex sexual behavior. The most overt condemnation concerns male same- sex intimacy, explicitly the penetration of the anus with the penis (Habib, 2010).
Scholars who frame acceptance and tolerance in Islam usually disregard the hadith or attempt to discredit its authenticity and place emphasis on the Quran (Ali, 2006).
Ibrahim was born into a hyper-religious family and was socialized at an early age into the teachings of the Quran. He stated not the religious text, nor the religious practices of his family remained with him due to extreme experiences he had in his childhood. As mentioned above, Ibrahim’s mother forced him to attend conversion therapy. When the first therapist didn’t convert Ibrahim, he was sent to an Islamic- based therapist. He recounts his experience:
He's like, “Well, do you pray?” – because Muslims pray five times a day. I said, “No, I don't pray.” “So you have to pray because people who don't pray they'll go to hell, and in Islamic Sharia they'll have to be punished by death.” I 170
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was like, “Okay. I'll start praying. That's fine.” He said, “Do you have sex with men?” I said I didn't, but of course, I did. He brought out the Quran and he said, “Put your hands on it and swear to Allah” Oh, there you go. At that point, I stopped believing in anything called God. Because I don't — I stopped giving a shit about that. Like, what the hell is he talking about? Just because I don't pray, am I going to die, just like that? I fucking hate this religion. I don't want it. I don't want to be part of it.
The severity of the therapy left an emotional scar on Ibrahim who currently holds no religious beliefs or ties, but states that he is still exploring “energy.”
In the interview Ibrahim stated, “Even when my mom sends us to Friday prayers we go to the mosque, I used go there to look at the men. Because they're prayers. And that continued until I realized I don't need to actually be here to be with men.” (Labi, 2007) found that some Middle Eastern men credit the strict segregation of genders in Middle Eastern and Islamic cultures as unavoidable opportunities to engage in same-sex intimacy. There is little contact between members of the opposite sex outside of marriage and individuals are socialized within gendered groups. This may also be indicative to the contention of other scholars that segregation of genders in the Islamic culture may imply the social role of a mentor is matters related to sex
(Habib, 2010). The men are not able to “practice” sex with women, therefore they engage in sexual intimacy with other men.
Nassim’s parents are both Muslim, however his father was Sunni and his mother Shia. They’ve been married for 30 years and Nassim has not once heard one speak ill of the other. His family never imposed Islam on him. Nassim made it clear that he didn’t care for two things, religion and politics:
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Because I'm a guy, I live my life the way I want to live it. Not my religion will tell me what to do or not my political stuff will tell me what to do, because I do whatever I want to do. And I have my own God, no one could tell me, “This is your God or this is your God, you have to do like that,” no, that's not me. I live, I go to gym, I eat, this is my life. I live day by day. So I hate politics and I hate religion.
Although Nassim rejects being categorized as Muslim, his commentary demonstrates an even more salient identification with being a man, which establishes a hypermasculinity. He has also internalized the characteristics that a man should exude, by emphasizing being able to live life the way he wants to. His sense of who he is, even having sex with other men, is built on the fact that as a man he can do whatever he wants. Religious and political conventions in his homeland prevented him from his behaving as he wanted, therefore he discards them. This raises an interesting paradox:
Nassim has male privilege, yet is still persecuted for his sexual orientation.
Political Rhetoric
One of the major themes that manifested among all of the interviewees was conservative political rhetoric in the U.S. mediated through television and online news sources, specifically some comments made by Republican presidential candidate
Donald J. Trump. At the time of the interviews, the 2016 presidential primaries were taking place and Trump’s anti-Muslim and anti-refugee statements, among others, caused controversy.
Mahdi wasn’t too concerned with statements made by conservative candidates,
“I think the American society has passed far beyond that point where they can take everything back. There are values that are deeply rooted in the society and the culture,
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which is personally freedom, and that is very, very strong here in America.”
Surprisingly, however, Mahdi agreed with Trump’s stance on extremist groups:
Coming from where I come from, Trump is actually portraying a fact that is exaggerated a hundred times as much. I think when he says if they have problem with Muslims, it's not about people who come from a faith. He talks about people from that faith who have those fanatic beliefs and talking about them. I agree with him that they could be ticking bombs, because look what happened. Look what's happening around the world. Look what happened in San Bernardino. Look what happened in Paris. Look what happened in New York, what's happening in Syria, and Iraq, and Afghanistan. Who are they? Of course if the U.S. allows ISIS members into the States, then who knows [chuckles] what's going to happen? So I don't think you would disagree with him saying that ISIS members shouldn't be allowed into the United States, or if they're here they should be expelled. You wouldn't hesitate that for a second, would you?
Although Mahdi sided with Trump’s extreme stance on ISIS, he didn’t believe that
Trump would ever get elected. He added, chillingly, “I come from a place where I would get stoned to death – that much hatred. So what Trump says is a lot lovelier than what I used to get. He's still way under the level of hatred that I'm used to getting from people around me.” Mahdi’s statement underscores the deep levels of aversion and discrimination that he encountered in Iran.
Other refugees had different responses to Trump and other some other
Republican candidates’ rhetoric. Ibrahim felt directly affected by Trump:
Threatened. I mean, I do feel threatened, but I don't think anybody of them will actually win. I don't think they would. I mean, if somebody like Donald Trump who would win, [it’s] not just me who's going to be threatened. Lots of people are going to get threatened and will flee or seek another country to live in. I mean, I still have choices to go to. Yes, I did have a refugee status, but within a year I can get my green card. And me getting the green card, I can actually go to another country which doesn't matter. The moment I get that, that's fine.
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Ibrahim’s fear was only eased by the possibility that Trump would not get elected and, like Mahdi, that the basic freedoms and liberties in the U.S. would prohibit such actions. Ibrahim commented, “They cannot do this here. They cannot do this here. It's not possible.” He felt that the political rhetoric he saw on television was pure spectacle and intended to gain votes:
They're just ideas, but they're impossible to implement – it's just impossible, and it's stupid. They are just saying that just to gain votes, that's it. And when they want to actually do that, they cannot actually do that. They just want to satisfy the voter's ear, so they can vote, so they will vote for that person. Well actually, I know somebody who grew up within the surroundings of Trump. He's old enough, he lives here [U.S.]. And he said that Trump is not what he appears on TV, Trump only says that so that he can gain votes. He's not exactly – it's not him. He only says that because there are a lot of stupid people here in the U.S. that would actually say, “Hey, I want to vote for these idiots.” But actually he has Latinos working for him and he actually goes to them and ask them if they want anything – like any help or anything else. Although he's nice to everybody, but he only does this so he can satisfy the idiots.
Nassim echoed Ibrahim’s sentiment and blamed not only the Republican Party, but also claimed the issues were endemic world-wide.
So politics is the same everywhere and the whole world. You see what's now happening now here? It also happens everywhere - in Europe and everywhere - because they're fighting for a new president. So politics is like fucked up everywhere. And I don't care about Trump or something like that, I don't want a Republican. To be honest with you, I don't want a Republican because all the Republicans need only Americans here, and I know that.
Nassim categorizes all Republicans based on Donald Trump’s rhetoric. To him, all
Republicans are the same and they only want “Americans” in the U.S. Although he doesn’t give an explanation of whom or what at American is, Nassim knows it’s not him. As a refugee, a minority, and as a perceived Muslim, Nassim perceives that the
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political rhetoric from conservatives categorizes everyone who’s not Republican as
Other.
Marwan sees the correlation in rhetoric between Syria and the U.S., but notes that the biggest difference is action.
Well, it's almost the same, but since we were not as visible community as the States, they were not very vocal about it – but now you can see actions. So they are really annihilating gay people, especially men. It's exactly the same thing that's happening here, but here there is no action – there's only words. There, there's action – there's no words. So they're telling you, “we're killing you, we will not announce that we will kill.” Yeah, but when I see political people here saying that, that scares me because one day words may become action and who knows?
Marwan experienced political violence first-hand, both at the hands of his government and the extremist group ISIS34. His fear is rooted in possible behavior that evolves out of such inciting rhetoric. Reza also links the political rhetoric to action, fearing that
Americans working in the legal, municipal, and immigration systems will begin to classify him and other minority immigrants in the same ways in which Donald Trump and conservatives have:
Actually, it sounds similar – gays are like abortion or immigration. Because in my country we have a lot of immigrants from Afghanistan, because there was a war there for many years, so we have millions of them in Iran. And Iranians, also, unfortunately are racists even our language is the same. We are kind of same people. They look at them very negatively like kind of here [how] some people are looking at African-Americans or Hispanics – that they are always criminals, they are rapists, or something. So they have those feelings in Iran. Then I hear about Donald Trump, what he says, I feel, “Oh, this is the same as Iran.” That I feel the same and it makes me scared. I apply for a green card because of my asylum, but it takes very long to be approved. I just got it a few
34 ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is also referred to as ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) by UN and U.S. officials, as well as Daesh (or Da’ish) in the Middle East (Irshaid, 2015). Because the participants use the acronym ISIS, I also use it in the current study. 175
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weeks ago. So then I was thinking, “Oh my God, Donald Trump said these things, so maybe now the officer is going to approve my green card. He's scared because I'm Muslim, I'm immigrant.” Maybe he doesn't want to approve because he have the same idea as Donald Trump or whatever, who knows.
The issue of refugees is part of larger thematic issue in the United States. The participant’s pejorative classification as refugees, LGBTIs, and/or Muslims
(perceived, since none of them self-identified as Muslim) by Trump and other conservatives are also reminiscent of the regimes of power from which the participants fled from. The classification of any collectivity by a more powerful collectivity or entity goes beyond mere classification, it is consequential (Jenkins, 2000). It is an interpolation in that group’s social world and will, “to an extent and in ways that are context-specific,” transform that world and the interactions of those inhabiting it (p.
22). The participants have experienced disruption, instigated by regimes of power, in their social world first-hand and they fear the same thing may happen in the United
States. Adjusting to political life in the U.S. is part of their post-asylum adaption, and communication plays key roles.
Post-Asylum Identity
The participants in this study constantly struggle to understand who they are.
Their past is juxtaposed with their present, inducing the worry of their future. Social contexts of categorization are essential in the process of identification (Jenkins, 2000).
Post-asylum gay refugees/asylees are exposed to how others in San Francisco defined the categories, ultimately influencing how the interviewees self-identified. These categorizations were introduced through mediated and interpersonal communication,
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however interpersonal communication through face-to-face interactions seemed to be the most significant. It was through interacting with other individuals who identified as gay, gay refugees, or queer Middle Eastern refugees/asylees, that the gay men were able to create meaning for their identities. They even adopted ‘queer’ as a way to identify post-asylum.
This process of social identity is about both sameness and difference (Jenkins,
2008) and instances of difference stood out among some of the participants. Marwan wanted to give a face to the struggle and encourage other LGBTI refugees from the
Middle East to come out and speak up. He even addressed the U.N. on behalf of
LGBTI refugees world-wide.
I think that after few months more and more people started to show their real faces and talk about their experiences. I was very happy to see that. When I addressed the U.N. it was completely liberating experience, because I’m coming from a place where you have to hide your sexuality – you cannot talk about it at all – to a place where you're telling the whole world – and especially the whole world's leader that you're gay and this is your story you're telling them, your experience, and testifying against horrendous actions of not just extremists like ISIS, but al Nusra, your government. That was completely transformative experience. I became more vocal, as one of my friends told me, “You regained your voice again.”
Marwan saw his advocacy as therapeutic, a way to purge his insecurities. With each advocacy interaction, Marwan internalized his role as not only an activist but also as queer. His identification with his advocacy was also reinforced by other people he interacted with. His social identity was robustly shaped though these internal and external dialects, “I call it a detoxification process. A lot of stuff went away now, and I am able to accept myself more.”
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The gay refugees/asylees recognized that ethnicity lay at the center of their identity. Reza affirmed:
I'm still Iranian, that's very big part of me and being gay. Still, if I come out I really love to be friends and contact with my Iranian people because we have a lot in common. It's much easier to communicate, share history, memories, everything. But the only I would say, yeah, being gay maybe is more important than being Iranian. Because here I decided to be gay and not have contact with my Iranian friends.
Reza’s ethnicity is something that he cannot eliminate from his life, however he is willing to forgo nurturing that side of his intersectional self in order to cultivate his sexuality. Like all of the participants, Reza was persecuted by his fellow countrymen, including his family, for his sexuality. The negative categorization thrust upon his group identification with gay and queer men was not something Reza was willing to accept a second time. His identification with gay was more salient than his identification with Iranian. This of course, was not something that he decided in passing. A key part of identification is a process of reflexivity (Jenkins, 2000). Reza’s social identity was formed, and will continue to be formed, through a conscious process.
Some of the gay refugees/asylees struggled with not only the counter- categorizations they encountered post-asylum, but also the social environment itself.
In most cases, the newfound freedom, combined with U.S. pop culture and gay culture, besieged the interviewees. Mahdi explains:
It's overwhelming not in a relieving way, if I may say. I mean, you look around and then you think, “Okay, so we have all this freedom to do what? To just go promiscuous and how are we using this freedom that we are claiming?” We obviously didn't go through all that trouble – not me, I mean people here – 178
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didn't go through all that trouble throughout the history just to gain sexual freedom. I don't think that was the purpose. I was lucky because the National Marriage Act, it came out in July, if I'm right— June or July.
Even though Mahdi had lived in Turkey for a few years before he moved to the U.S, it was too much too fast, “It is a big jump and then you need some [training] pedals, you know?” Mahdi indicates that he needed help, as well as time, to learn the cultural nuances of his new home.
Nassim was not as overwhelmed as the other refugees, his media consumption,
Internet searches, and travels to Europe prepared him for some of the experiences he encountered in San Francisco, “I was expecting everything more than Europe here, because here it goes easy.” Nassim had visited various gay bars and drag shows during his travels. He stated that he expected to see all that in San Francisco, as well as same- sex couples kissing and holding hands. Nassim’s expectations were superseded, however, when he attended Pride and the Folsom Street Festival in Dore Alley. There was nudity and public displays of sexual acts, “I saw everything, crazy stuff here, it was crazy!” Nassim, like the rest of the participants, is still acculturating to his new environment, however, he had already started to develop a gay identity before arriving in the U.S. The categorization of gay he encountered in San Francisco was similar to the identification of gay he was already internalizing.
Perhaps the most salient collective identity the participants all held was that of a refugee. As Ibrahim testifies, “Being a refugee is a fact. I mean being a refugee is not something to be ashamed of. Some people have problems with their country, they flee off that. If they called me a refugee, I'm a refugee, yes!” Other participants also 179
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identified with the refugee category, some more positively than others. It was dependent on context, as identification always is (Jenkins, 2000). Refugees are categorized by entities and individuals in various manners. The mediated and interpersonal categorizations of refugees were something the participants grappled with on a daily basis.
Chapter Conclusion
In sum, the external categorizations the gay refugees/asylees encountered post- asylum were, for some, contrary to those they encountered in their native countries.
Some internalized those categorizations in whole or in part as an element of their own self-identification. Others had come to terms with their sexuality in the liminal spaces between exile and home. Their sexuality served as a catalyst for seeking refuge in San
Francisco. For these individuals, the external categorizations of the queer diaspora post-asylum were congruent to existing group identification, therefore they reinforced each other (Jenkins, 2000). Whatever their path of identification, the end result for all was a collective gay identity.
There were clear distinctions between communication use pre- and post- asylum. As stated in Chapter Seven, in a pre-asylum context, media was used for asylum seeking, to find information on gay culture, and to build relationships with other gays living in secret; whereas interpersonal communication was used to find and initiate escape routes. In a post-asylum context, media was used to find other LGBTIs in the queer diaspora, however not used to build relationships. Interpersonal
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communication was utilized more in the queer diaspora to foster relationships, acculturate, and shape identity.
The commentary provided by the gay refugees/asylees throughout their journey demonstrates that identity is not rigid and fixed. Rather, identity is fluid and is influenced by the interactions individuals experience throughout their lives. In their post-asylum environment, the interviewees still had to negotiate negative categorizations from other non-LGBTI individuals from their home countries and cultures. The negative categorizations of gay spilled over to the diaspora from the interviewee’s native countries. Therefore, the interviewees preferred to stay away from non-LGBTIs and were drawn to other gay men, especially if those gay men were also refugees or gay Middle Easterners.
San Francisco also manifested as a symbol of gay lifestyle for all of the interviewees. The city provided a physical and tangible environment in which the gay refugees/asylees could perform their gay identities. Also, living in the Castro district of San Francisco influenced how the interviewees thought about and internalized a gay identity. It was through interactions within this queer diaspora that they shaped meaning and negotiated their post-asylum gay identities. Interpersonal contact was more important in the post-asylum context, than was mediated communication.
In terms of mediated communication, legacy media and the Internet were used to find information on acculturation and gay culture. Social media, specifically, was used to meet other gay individuals, however relationships were fostered in-person.
Also established through the interviews was Facebook’s role as a space to perform 181
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various facets of the interviewees’ identities. Some had only one Facebook page and filtered what they posted according to gay content and their friends, family, and native governments. One individual, Reza, went as far as to have two Facebook accounts – one in which her performed a gay identity, and one in which he performed a straight identity. Social media was also used to help advocate for LGBTI rights in transnational and global contexts. The two interviewees who worked for an LGBTI refugee-focused NGO, internalized their occupation into their post-asylum identities.
They balanced their professional and personal life in both digital and physical spaces.
Finally, religion and politics also influenced how the gay refugees/asylees internalized categorizations post-asylum. The interviewee’s primary identities included instances of Islamic influence – an influence that all interviewees denounced once they had time to reflect and internalize the categorizations which were influenced by religion. A hypermasculinity, partially motivated by religion, was also found among some of the interviewees. They had male privilege, but were still persecuted for being gay.
Conservative political rhetoric, disseminated through the media, reminded the interviewees of the marginalized life they left behind in their native countries. The main difference highlighted in the interviews was that pre-asylum categorizations were consequential and came with violent actions directed at the gay refugees/asylees in their home countries. The post-asylum categorizations from conservatives like presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, although still negative, had yet to instigate any actions at the time of writing. 182
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CHAPTER IX
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION: NGO TO LGBTI
LGBTI asylum-specific non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are positioned to assist LGBTI refugees who seek shelter or asylum. These niche organizations have trained staff and volunteers to assist with this marginalized group’s unique needs, which include English skills, computer literacy, legal aid, housing placement, and counseling services, among others. Previous research found that
LGBTI asylum-specific NGOs use digital communication to inform their publics through affective means, especially building community and instigating action
(Rodriguez, 2016). The gay refugees/asylees I interviewed mentioned little about receiving aid from organizations during their migration process. In fact, most support during the first half of their migration journey came from interpersonal communication. If these supranational organizations position themselves as LGBTI refugee-focused, then further examination into their communication processes— specifically toward LGBTIs—is warranted. This chapter extends the discussion initiated in Chapter Seven by investigating organization’s strategic communication.
The principal goal is to better understand how the organizations position themselves in respect to refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees.
The state of communication between NGOs, LGBTI-focused organizations, advocates and LGBTI refugees/asylees is in constant flux. The NGOs must respond to both immediate and long-term challenges that refugees face in a fluid environment.
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Challenges constantly arise from governmental interventions in global regions where
LGBTIs are persecuted. These interventions affect censorship of media content and media platforms, as well as access to information by LGBTIs in need (Human Rights
Watch, 1999; Warf &Vincent, 2007).
The Organizations & Communication
Ron35 and Stacey work with Jewish Family Services (JFS), which focuses its efforts primarily on refugee resettlement. Ron states, “as an organization that is funded by the U.S. State Department, we are not allowed to help asylum seekers.” They do, however, help asylees once they have received asylum in the U.S. These asylees are usually referred to the NGO by other organizations, primarily Hebrew Immigrant Aid
Society (HIAS). Stacey commented,
Most of the referrals that we get come from Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society which is one of the large organizations that can actually take in refugees and they refer them to local organizations like ours. And most of the work that they do, they do in Kenya or in country. And we don't have a lot of knowledge about it.
The primary function of resettlement involves finding individuals in the local community to temporarily house refugees, usually for between one and eight months.
The organization also helps the refugees learn English, build vocational skills, and understand how to navigate the U.S. welfare system. In terms of communication, the organization employs a mix of Internet, social media, and interpersonal methods.
Refugees frequently contact the organization about advocacy and to request help in obtaining asylum; JFS refers them to other organizations, in particular ORAM.
35 Pseudonyms were assigned to the NGOs personnel to help maintain their privacy. 184
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Ron stated, “ORAM does a lot of advocacy and we do refugee resettlement, so it’s different parts of the process.” The organizations are both located in the Bay Area of
Northern California, which facilitates their collaboration.
The Organization for Asylum and Migration (ORAM) focuses on advocacy and human rights awareness at local, regional, and global levels36. Lauren identifies the organization’s main service as providing information to refugees so that they may access the system themselves. In addition, ORAM had recently started engaging in direct representation for refugee cases and passing the cases on to the UNHCR. This helps speed up the approval process for the refugee.
In terms of awareness, the organization works with traditional as well as digital media, and face-to-face communication methods. David stated that most of the printed, promotional materials that are produced by the San Francisco office are for organizations and individuals who aid refugees/asylum speakers to place in offices and hallways. The resources inspire closeted LGBTI refugees to speak out for help and/or communicate what ORAM does. “It's not just one of those pens with your name you get in the mail or those address stickers. It's not just a giveaway. It actually was created for something more serious than just being a giveaway.”
The offices in San Francisco work in tandem with their other branches in the
Middle East. ORAM representatives indicated that they had little difficulty being able to communicate via phone, email, Skype, and other mediated, online technologies.
Lauren commented, “I actually think the communications are so global at this point
36 Further explication on each of the four NGOs highlighted in this study can be found in Chapter Six. 185
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that it works anywhere.” Modern technology and global communication has allowed
ORAM to become a truly global entity.
Another globally-focused NGO, OutRight Action International (OAI), is headquartered in New York City. Barbara and Jessica explained that OAI doesn’t work directly with refugee resettlement, but instead concentrates on advocacy and human rights in a similar fashion to ORAM. Barbara explains:
We are active in this sense, in places in conflict, for example, Iraq, Syria, other countries where there's an active military conflict, gay people just like other people aren't under threat, but their situation is more unique because if you get a group of refugees together, your status as a person can be a source of friction. So there's discrimination, then, within a refugee community. And by governments, even. Not providing everything from correct living status to bathrooms, et cetera.
The organization uses both traditional and digital communication to engage and foster relationships with stakeholders, media, supporters, and refugees/asylees.
The organization has a small communication staff and makes the most out of the information that they disseminate. Barbara states:
But that communication which goes to our email list of people who donate to us, people who signed on to get this communication goes to some media can also be spun out as a tweet, as a Facebook post in a different form. Perhaps as a blog. So the way we think about things is what do we want to say, and how do we say it to different groups perhaps across different platforms?
The organization’s overall message according to Barbara is, “We are a leading organization working to support activists all over the world, or at least in the global sell, who are fighting for human rights of LGBTIQ people.” OAI, of course, disseminates sub-messages asking for donations, volunteers, and support. Specifically, support in the context of media and communication comes in the form of online action 186
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by media users such as liking, sharing, and commenting on posts, tweets, blogs, and news stories. Barbara stated the organization wants all publics to be aware of the work that OAI is doing and to “share when it’s relevant.”
Barbara explained that OAI does not work directly with refugee resettlement,
“so even though we don't do the direct work with people who are seeking asylum or with refugees, we amplify their concerns.” This amplification occurs on social media, in traditional media news outlets, and through speaking engagements and programs.
“We're a knowledge bank, a connector, and a speaker to the world about the issues that frame refugee and asylum concerns,” says Barbara.
OAI and ORAM work to change how others, specifically supranational organizations like the UN, categorize LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. Their primary goal is to influence the formulation and implementation of social policy.
Distinctively, they labor to have this population recognized as threatened and in need of immediate assistance, while at the same time recognizing them as individuals deserving of acceptance and compassion. As Jenkins (2000) points out, “the targeting of resources and interventions at a section of the population which is perceived to have particularly urgent or specialized needs, may call into existence a new social categorization, or strengthen existing categorizations” (p. 19). Additionally, this social policy is directly dependent upon official classification (Dorling & Simpson, 1999).
Official classifications can happen at the state, national, or global level (as in the UN).
This is an issue of power, those who have the power and authority to create official categorizations are entities targeted by OAI and ORAM. The NGOs encourage 187
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supranational governing bodies to adopt official classifications of not only refugees, but distinctively LGBTI individuals living in global regions where same-sex sexual orientation is persecuted and sanctioned. It is important to note that categorization is not always associated with negativity or oppression, but can also be positive and liberating (Jenkins, 2000). This directly impacts the identity process of the LGBTI refugees/asylees by introducing a more optimistic and constructive categorization to internalize.
There is often a balance of global and local, glocalization37 as it is sometimes referred to. Some organizations, like those discussed above, engage in international- level advocacy work, while others like Seattle Counseling Services (SCS) focus on local efforts. The organization uses communication to target LGBTI refugees, asylees, and immigrants already living in King County, where Seattle is located. SCS not only provides counseling to its clients, but also support groups, immigration outreach, consulting and training. The organization emphasizes resource availability because most refugees and immigrants are not aware that specialized services exist which can help them in their new home.
Maria, a former refugee herself, is employed by SCS and collects information from LGBTI refugees and immigrants to better tailor services that directly benefit their unique circumstances. SCS uses social media and the Internet to promote its services, however, it was also considering taking out advertisements on the sides of
37 Glocalization was first conceptualized by Robertson (1994) as “telescoping global and local to make a blend” (p. 36). It was adopted as an international framework to capture and accommodate international communication processes by Kraidy (2003). 188
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busses that communicate its services to the public. Maria suspects that the main message will be very simple and direct, something to the effect of “Queer refugees, welcome to Seattle,” and include contact information such as a website or phone number that the refugees can contact in order to receive information on resources.
NGO Location
One of the attributes highlighted in the media concerns sanctuary cities. There is no official definition for a sanctuary city, however it’s usually regarded as a city that self-proclaims, or has policies in place, that do not prosecute undocumented immigrants (Pearson, 2015). Usually these cities do not allow municipal resources or funding to enforce federal immigration laws, have policies that do not allow police or city employees to ask about and individual’s immigration status. Each city chosen by an NGO to serve as a base of operations or headquarters is considered a sanctuary city38. There are more reasons, however, why these cities attract diversity and marginalized populations.
Seattle is a node of cultural diversity. The city itself, according to Maria, has worked diligently for the last 20 years to change its policies related to immigration and has implemented initiatives around race equity to make city services accessible to immigrants and refugees. For example, Washington is one of the few states where undocumented individuals may obtain a driver’s license, and Seattle has a policy in
38 San Francisco was declared a sanctuary city by the Board of Supervisors in 1989 (Fimrite, 2007), Berkeley adopted sanctuary laws in 2007, and Oakland reaffirmed its status of a city of refuge in 2008 (Tarlton & Green, 2015). Seattle adopted sanctuary policies in 2009 (KingCounty, 2009) and New York City passed a sanctuary law in 2014 (Barron, 2014). 189
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place that prevents its police officers or city officials (except in cases of federal assistance) from asking about immigration status. Maria adds:
The four last mayors have made a point of being very public about it. We have an office for immigrant and refugee affairs, have commission for immigrant and refugee affairs. There are 63 different commissions in the city, and at least 6 of them have undocumented people that are at the table helping the city update policy. So that sends a very strong message, that you're welcome and you're part of us. You're of us.
Maria also commented on the ethnic background of the LGBTIs living in the city, “I realized the two largest foreign born populations in King County are Latino and Asian. Asian is larger.” As concerns queer spaces, there are two main areas in
Seattle. Capitol Hill has been long known for being the gay area of Seattle; however, because of gentrification, it has become extremely expensive. SCS maintains offices on the edge of Capitol Hill. Beacon Hill, according to Maria, is the current popular space for minority LGBTIs, “it's becoming that kind of area where all the queer people of color are going to hang out. There is a bar called Baja Bistro and it's tiny but
Thursdays, everybody is there. Like you see Africans, French, Vietnamese, Filipinos, hanging out.” Maria mentioned that there were some ethnic groups that still lived within their diasporic cultural groups in the city. For example, LGBTIs from African countries relocated within their respective ethnic enclaves in the Seattle area. This often made it difficult for them to come out and live their preferred lifestyle.
New York’s ethnic LGBTIs are spread throughout the boroughs. Jessica stated
“we’re separated by country for sure…I think New York is largely still ethnically sectioned off, I’m not aware that there is any gay melting pot from all over the world.”
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These boroughs even had their own queer space where the ethnic LGBTIs of that community would congregate. Jessica commented:
When I worked at the LGBT center, it was like four or five years that I worked there and I went to every single LGBT play in every borough and it didn't fail. There wasn't like one enclave in one place where everyone could go to. I have seen a change in nightclubs. When I first came here, The L Word was on television and there were a lot of lesbian nightclubs that were popping up all over the place in Brooklyn, Queens. There was even one in Queens that was Hispanic...They're all closed now - there's only still the two.
Not only does this speak to New York’s stratification of LGBTIs by ethnic boroughs, it also hints to the power of a television show, with queer content, to influence actual physical spaces. Jessica explained that when The L Word (a popular lesbian-focused show on the premium cable channel Showtime) went off air, the targeted nightclub was no longer in vogue.
They just ran out of business. They didn't want to be strictly focused on lesbian. There's still the lesbian party. That's always been a big thing and an underground thing for people to connect is through lesbian parties. But only the old school that have been there for years, Cubbyhole and Henrietta's and Julie's, I think, up in midtown; all the older bars, they're still there.
The Bay Area is home to both JFS and ORAM. Both organizations describe the Bay Area as a place of diversity and inclusion. However, they also acknowledge challenges related to the high cost of living. Ron explains.
San Francisco has the image it has, and it's the mecca, and people want to come here. And people don't always know how expensive it is. It's just like, "Wow. I'm escaping some horrible situation. I'm going to go-- what better place to go?" So there's that. And then in terms of the overall refugee situation, a lot of people come here because they have some relatives or some U.S. tie here. And the truth is, is that some people come to the Bay Area, and they may move somewhere else because it's just too expensive. We see it all. Some people move somewhere else, and other people get resettled in the middle of Kansas, and they may do secondary migration here. So it kind of works in 191
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different directions. This is an expensive place to live. Either they don't know it before or they figure it out.
Sometimes, however, these ethnic enclaves are homophobic as well, as Stacey explains:
I think the one thing we have going for us is the LGBT community of immigrants is really large. So, in a lot of countries you couldn't find say a African immigrant community that wasn't homophobic. Whereas in the Bay Area, there is actually a gay African immigrant community, so I think that's a big a help because so many gay refugees come and they want to connect with immigrants from their home country, but the problem is of course a lot of those immigrants are so homophobic. So, I think in many communities you could find, perhaps, the immigrant community and perhaps you could find the LGBT community, but that overlap wouldn't be what it is in the Bay Area.
The NGOs have all chosen locations that are considered hubs of diversity and are home to various diasporic groups. Refugees have a need for solidarity and cohabitation with others that they share commonalities with (Butler, 2012). In terms of cultural and national diasporas, there cannot be neither. A queer diaspora is safer and more supportive for LGBTI reguees/asylees.
Outreach
One of the most important functions of communication in these NGOs is outreach. This comes in the form of fundraising, consciousness raising, and seeking volunteers. All of the organizations I spoke with engage in outreach in order to maintain the services they provide and to also publicize those services.
JFS has money that originates at the State Department Office of Refugee
Resettlement and then comes to the organization through HIAS. There are also LGBT foundations and individual donors that provide funding. Part of the communication
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strategy of JFS is to remain detectable to all publics. Stacey comments, “the more visible we are, the more we attract attention and people respect our reputation and are looking to help us.” Remaining visible entails holding speaking engagements, generating media coverage, and organizing fundraisers.
The two main methods of outreach for all of the organizations have been digital media and public speaking engagements. Ron comments on the new social media direction JFS is embarking on:
We're kind of building out our social media strategy. We did do daily posts on Facebook. We do Twitter and stuff, but building out more of a proactive social media strategy is something that we're doing now. I'd say there are people who have certainly found out about housing needs or whatever from Facebook.
Social media also helps the organization build networks of people willing to help.
They not only volunteer at times, but also share the organization’s messages with their networks.
OAI receives a large number of messages through its Facebook and Twitter accounts. The organization does not like to conduct business on social media, so they respond to each individual with the same message, “contact us by email.” The organization also provides content on their social media (as well as on their website) that can help direct refugees and other publics to places where they can get the help they need. The organization also invites guest bloggers and then shares the blogs via their social media platforms.
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One of the more creative projects OAI has been a part of revolves around a graphic novel, Yousef and Farhad39, which focuses on an Iranian gay couple. This love story was hosted on the website, but shared via Facebook and Twitter. The project was also picked up by an Italian newspaper, the Huffington Post, and other media outlets.
Barbara sees a blending of social and traditional media. In her view, “it’s not as stratified as it once was and is all coming together.” The major strategy employed by OAI’s communication team is to generate exceptional online content, share it on social media, and then have it covered in traditional media spaces. Barbara explains:
Our hope is that it works both ways, so we get a big swell on social, which increases interest in the traditional media sphere or vice versa. We get a story that then goes viral, so to speak, or at least gets attention and so they work hand in hand.
There are also distinctive strategic approaches to the way the organization uses different types of social media platforms. Jessica notes the difference between
Facebook and Twitter:
I've found the same thing is people go to Twitter for news and real time information like right now, right now, or if they want to try to actually contact someone directly in the moment. And on Facebook they're building networks of people that they're trying to connect with. And on that level, that means you have literal silos and groups of people looking for each other. And that happens a lot in the activism community. And so if you tap into that, that's where you start to see on how things get shared and how things move about places. It also means that you shouldn't just stay on your page. You should find those groups, and take what you have on your page, and share it with those
39 The graphic novel is a love story that centers on two Iranian men who struggle with acceptance. The two main characters are rejected by their family, but fight for their right love one another. It was written to raise awareness and encourage positive change in Iran by building a culture of diversity. 194
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groups, so then you make those connections because otherwise there's so much happening on Facebook you don't necessarily see it.
Interpersonal interaction in the form of speaking engagements is the second main method employed by the NGOs for outreach. This allows the organizations to personalize their messages and meet actual and potential stakeholders face-to-face.
The organization’s work is a combination of community networking, congregational outreach, and friends of friends. For example, Stacey spoke on behalf of JFS at the
University of California at Berkeley, and one of the professors there ended up becoming a housing host afterward. The organization has also spoken at synagogues, volunteers’ homes, and other organizations’ events. This interpersonal strategy builds a large network of volunteers and community, which has also been found in other research (Jensen, 2010; Pfeffer, 2013). The speaking events, however, primarily draw in people who are already interested in the subject.
Interpersonal communication also extends to the refugees themselves. A majority of the volunteers working within the walls of JFS are former refugees in the local community, some of them helped by the organization and others not. Most of the case workers are also former refugees who stepped into an advocacy role within the organization. There’s a tradition of refugees helping the newcomers. Ron stated:
From my vantage point, having seen the genesis of this program from the original idea, one of the really moving aspects of it has been seeing some of them, not just come around, but really become advocates. They've really learned a lot. This is not where they started out, so that's powerful. So yeah, Stacey is the one holding the LGBT refugee program, but it's part of a bigger refugee and immigrant department, and part of an agency, all of whom, board included, take tremendous amount of pride in this program.
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ORAM also uses an interpersonal approach in its advocacy and outreach.
David states this approach individualizes communication efforts and allows the organization to engage people in a personal manner:
You set up a table there, and each person comes up you try to engage them, and say, "Hey, you know, would you like to do this, do A, B, or C?" And then hopefully some people will be willing to do A, B, or C, if you're convincing enough. A lot of it I always say is getting people to do things that they didn't know that they wanted to do, but now they know. You know, that's really what a lot of it's about.
This type of engagement was the exact activity that I participated in while in San
Francisco (described in Chapter Seven). The engagement with individuals not only helps impart information on those who are unfamiliar with the plight of LGBTI refugees, but it also helps the NGO identify which information is being engaged with by those visiting the table. Depending on the questions being asked by these visitors, and even their reactions, the NGO is able to monitor which of their informational materials is making the most impact or getting the most attention. This back and forth helps create meaning for both parties. New information is introduced to both sides, reflected upon, and then internalized.
Maria, with SCS, started out using physical posters as a means of outreach, however she quickly realized it wasn’t working for LBTI refugees living in Seattle.
Her strategy combined social media and interpersonal communication:
So I went back and redesigned my strategy. I decided to do one-on-one interviews, and I started meeting people. I started using Facebook. I belong to a number of groups, the people of color who are queer, and so I posted it there. And one person responded, and that person takes me to another person, like that, and I ended up with 53 interviews.
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The organizations utilized a combination of both mediated and interpersonal communication strategies to effectively engage with their publics. As demonstrated above, the strategy chosen is dependent upon the specific endeavor and the target audience. To communicate general information about their organization and to provide asylum and resource information, the NGOs utilized the Internet, social media, and – to an extent—traditional media. Interpersonal communication was used to foster a sense of purpose, recruit volunteers, and to secure monetary donations. Each situation, however, is not mutually exclusive. There was overlap and sometimes both mediated and interpersonal strategies were employed.
Affect and Connection
Organizational employees/members also play a key role in shaping an organizational identity, which Dutton & Dukerich (1991) define as “what organizational members believe to be its central, enduring, and distinctive character”
(p. 520). Such individuals all hold subjective meanings that together form a collective voice that offers a contextual framework for others in the organization (Putnam &
Nicotera, 2009). This perspective, however, excludes how the organization is seen by external publics or by the organization itself. This study seeks to understand both the organization and the employee/member’s interpretation of organizational identity.
One of the most valuable strategies that the NGOs employ in their communication endeavors is interviewing staff, volunteers, and refugees themselves.
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releases or are hosted on the organization’s website and social media. OAI has its executive do interviews, usually via skype or phone. To a much lesser extent, the organization employs in-person interviews, both in real-time and recorded.
Ron commented that he invited one of the organization’s African refugees to his child’s middle school and it had a tremendous impact. Also, his organization, JFS, is creating a two-minute micro-documentary about one of its Afghan refugee clients.
For Ron, the video personifies the services of the organization and makes the story more vivid:
We have all these powerful stories and when people-- when we're able to present someone telling their story and telling their story in their own words, it's just way more powerful than anything else. It's just that for most of our clients, it's not possible and they don't want to do that. There's all kinds of confidentiality issues with everything that we do, not just refugee program. So when we're fortunate enough to have a motivated person who feels comfortable doing it, we're thrilled.
The refugee who volunteered for the documentary is a recent client who is feeling good about his move and wants to give back. The video will be hosted on the organization’s website and disseminated via social media, as well as utilized at LGBTI events.
David explains that ORAM utilizes a similar strategy in San Francisco, “we take refugees out in public and do public talks, and in situations where hopefully then people will be moved and then they will contact us.” Stacey explained that many refugees who achieve asylum contact the organization’s San Francisco office and ask how they can share their story or connect to the community. The ORAM office in the
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Middle East also works closely with a group of LGBTI refugees. Stacey explains the relationship:
We basically talk with LGBT refugees that gain access to and meet other LGBT refugees. So we have a group that we didn't found; it was founded by the refugees themselves called the Tea and Talk. And it's a group of refugees who get together - for a lot of different reasons, including moral support… So I would say that in Turkey itself it's much more face-to-face and through connections of LGBT refugees we already have, because it's very hard to reach LGBT refugees through media, basically. Because everyone's in hiding, right? So I'm sure there's even a lot of refugees that we're not meeting because they're not connected to this community. So making that initial connection is very difficult from their end. Once they're in this Arabic speaking LGBT community inside Istanbul, we have a pretty good bunch of measures in order-- that to talk to them.
Maria stated that SCS has a similar approach in terms of outreach to other
LGBTI refugees: “they're certain key people. We call them trusted advocates. They're not necessarily connected to organizations or anything, but they're people who, because of their experience, they want to help.” Much like the other organizations, this creates a network of people built from the networks of others. It also adds credibility to the organization and aids in building trust.
Maria also encourages the refugees she meets to tell their stories. She herself was a refugee and, for her, telling her story was not only a healing process, but also a way to help others. She stated, “There's nothing about us in history, in research."
People don't know about what we need and what we want. We're never going to get it.
It's up to us because those folks don't care.” As a refugee herself, Maria not only adds credibility to the organization, but also is able to form close bonds with the refugees.
They have similar experiences and it makes them more comfortable sharing with her.
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Maria’s commentary is evidence of how she, like the organizations, is providing counter narratives to mainstream perceptions of what refugees are and what they need. Having the refugees they have helped speak for the organization is an example of combining both internal and external communication; in this regard internal voices are directed as external communication (Cheney & Chistensen, 2001).
For many organizations, the points of contact between the organization and its public are the members themselves; thus, members communicating the identity of the organization is much more effective than advertising (Carlzon, 1987; Olins, 1989).
Formal Reports
Among the biggest contributions that these NGOs make is the collection and dissemination of information in the form of reports. OAI has programs that research injustices in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Some of the research is directly collected by OAI and some is obtained in tandem with regional partners. OAI maintains the oversight and the vetting of all the information. Barbara explained,
“We're a human rights organization. So, we follow the UN human rights covenants and treaties, and the universal declaration as far as determining what the abuses are and the violations.” The reports contain valuable information, but are oftentimes long and contain complicated, specialized language. Jessica notes one of their jobs is to make the information more accessible to all publics:
Really taking that human rights speak and raw and making it more manageable to help create an education part of the blog that people can learn from. Because even the person seeking asylum, you're sitting across from a lawyer, a human rights person, and they're throwing these words at you. I can't imagine what
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you must be thinking. So even if we have stuff like that that we pull out of our manuals and talk to them instead, break it down, it could be helpful.
She also stated that at times, communication personnel don’t even realize they’re speaking in such manners. It’s a conscious effort to be able to transition between the types of language used. Another value of making this information more accessible is to be both distinct and consequential in producing copy for traditional media outlets in the form of press releases. The streamlined information is also posted on the organization’s website and social media. This is especially helpful on platforms like
Twitter, where the amount of content is limited.
Creating reports and generating content for media outlets is a function that many communication professionals in general are tasked with. However, the situations and populations that OAI and the other LGBTI refugee-focused NGOS work with are unique and sensitive, which makes their work more complicated. Jessica, and the other communication professionals employed by these niche NGOs, must also tailor their communication content to LGBTIs who are trying to understand and negotiate diverse legal systems around the world.
Language and Labels
The preceding section sets up a nice segue into the language and labels used by these NGOs. Language is important for both finding and understanding information.
The organizations’ communication departments have to communicate with a variety of publics. They must make sure the information is obtainable and comprehensible for
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advocates and refugees alike. They must also be sure to use the proper labels and terminology to identify this marginalized population correctly.
Jessica with OAI states that employing the right key words or phrases in digital content optimizes online searches, especially in the digital environment where so much searching, filtering, and archiving occurs. One of the phrases is “human rights.”
It’s important when working with activists and refugees to be able to include vernacular that they use in their inquiries:
It varies from place to place from what I'm seeing. For one, I do searches myself. If I want to know about asylum refugee and LGBT, I'll search that and see where we come up and how we come up. If we come up on the second or third page and I want to move that up, then I start working towards that. So it just all depends on what keywords that we want to focus on at that time. The same thing goes for blog posts and information.
Jessica also constantly updates content on the OAI website, regardless how old it is, to keep the organization current and relevant. It also helps increase web traffic to the organization’s website and social media pages. This upkeep also applies to the mobile site, although she mentions that traffic there is not as heavy as on the full site.
In the same spirit, SCS is works in tandem with AsylumConnect to provide services online, in both full and mobile sites, to help LGBTI refugees in the Seattle area. Maria described the online service as a “one-stop shop” that lists services and resources available to refugees, asylum seeker, and asylees. To date there are about 70 agencies listed in SCS’ service catalog, and the number is expected to grow.
Rebranding is also a way of staying current and relevant while also continuing to satisfy the core ideology of the brand (Merrilees & Miller, 2008); particularly when
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it comes to the constant flux of social and political issues affecting LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers. The refugee situation is constantly changing and the organizations need to be responsive to those changes. ORAM released a new logo just prior to my visit and is upgrading its website to represent the rebrand. Rebranding, according to
Stacey, “helps you reset your goals and your mission to reflect what’s going on in the field.” Lauren stated:
And so the rebranding is also to establish ourselves more as a think tank or a go-to group in LGBT refugee issues so that people will really start using our information even when they don't get training. So we get quickly that through this capacity building, we could help the most amount of LGBT refugees.
OAI also in recent months went through a rebrand and completely changed its name. Barbara explains:
It didn't have anything to do with refugees. It was purely the Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission is pretty exclusive. It doesn't include trans people or intersex people, so we wanted to be more inclusive. The other aspect of it is the acronym is IGLHRC. Nobody could ever pronounce it, so we looked for something shorter. We go by OutRight, we don't use Action International as a full name, we just say OutRight. But obviously it conveys the fact that we are global and that we are acting to do something. We're not a foundation, we're trying to engage people to make change.
Much like other areas of media and communication, there is an interesting tension between ease of use and accuracy. Barbara’s comment stresses how organizations want to be inclusive of their mission and utilize a name that represents who they are and what they do. At the same time, they also want their name to be easy to pronounce, spell, and search online.
The above commentary also demonstrates how inclusion of other LGBTI identities in the name of the organization legitimizes those identities. There are a 203
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variety of acronyms and labels used to identify the community targeted by the organizations. These tend to be thought through in advance and applied carefully due to sensitivities related to categorization, representation, and the like discussed in prior chapters. OAI uses the acronym LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer). Barbara rationalized that it was the most inclusive at the moment and the broadest global frame of reference. She rationalizes: “It's always going to evolve.
It is never going to be static. There are going to be new iterations, everyone knows that. Next year there might be another letter in there, for whatever reason.” Jessica added that OAI’s digital content also uses LGBT and #LGBT because it gets more popular and gets more hits and followers. In press media, the organization includes the letters “IQ.”
ORAM varies its use of acronyms in similar fashion. The organization adapts its correspondence to its audience. Because the “I” is utilized more in Europe, the acronym LGBTI is used in European correspondences. Lauren stated, “sometimes when we do media work, we drop the “I” - not because we don't care about specifics - we do - but because the American media outlets seem to prefer the acronym LGBT.
That's the most common one.” Lauren also explains the how LGBT fits into other aspects of their communication endeavors:
Also, I should say that when we're actually doing training and when we're marketing for trainings, we also use the acronym LGBT. We use the acronym SGM, which means sexual and gender minorities. Because, again, someone might not even identify as gay or use one of those labels and we also don't want to conflate issues, right? Basically, what really matters when you're fleeing persecution-- it's not really even your identity. It's, are you going to be persecuted because someone thinks that you are gay, because someone thinks 204
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that you are trans, right? That's really what matters here, is your ability to be persecuted. There might be, actually, someone who is not LGBT and is still being persecuted because others think that that person is. And so, we prefer the term sexual and gender minorities because it's more all-encompassing without sticking to specific labels, such as lesbian, gay, et-cetera.
ORAM published a report in April 2016 titled Sexual Orientation, Gender Identify and
Gender Expression: Essential Terminology for the Humanitarian Sector40. The publication intends to help refugee professionals better communicate with LGBTI refugees in respectful and appropriate ways. It includes not only LGBTI terminology in English, French, Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic, but also contextual examples of usage.
‘Queer’ was the preferred label I found among the LGBTI refugees/asylees I interviewed and observed in San Francisco (remember they were all from Middle
Eastern backgrounds with the exception of one Ukrainian). It is important to identify the labels, or category if your will, that these NGOs use to identify members of the
LGBTI community. Cover (2002) argues that LGBTIs use discourses of sexuality, which are mediated through mass-mediated messages and Western cultural institutions, to negotiate sexual identity. Also recall, the participants mentioned in the preceding chapter that there was not a positive word in Arabic or Farsi to identify with, and they adopted the word queer. As a matter of fact, Jessica with OAI commented that the Huffington Post had just switched the name of their LGBT section from Gay Voices to Queer Voices. Barbara offered a rationale:
I think being in San Francisco, even when I was back there, queers was the proper word. In New York it fluctuates depending on what age group you're
40 The SOGI publication was reviewed by scholars, experts, and community leaders in their respective native languages. 205
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talking to. The older generation, queer is a bad word. Well, because it was a slur back 30 years ago. Now it's come full circle. It's interesting how language really changes the whole meaning.
Lauren, with ORAM, also credits San Francisco’s queer-friendly environment, open community, and rapid rate at which refugees enter the community with the ease for which labels are adopted. That’s not the case for those refugees still stuck in the
Middle East:
But for most people still in Turkey even saying, "I'm gay." Or, "I'm bi." Or, "I'm trans," is very difficult. A lot of people don't say that. A lot of people have never said that to themselves. So, the queer doesn't really represent the population we're working with. And in addition to that, because queer is a definition that lacks definition, if you will, that also doesn't really work for gaining refugee status. Like if you go to the UNHCR and you say, "I'm queer," and they say, "Well, what does that mean?" It's because it's a definition that says-- it basically means I'm breaking stereotypes, and I'm breaking gender norms, and I'm breaking sexuality norms. The UNHCR works in very distinct categories, right?
That’s not to say that a person identifying as ‘queer’ to the UNHRC wouldn’t get help, it just doesn’t happen very often. Lauren reiterated that most people fleeing persecution for being LGBTI don’t identify themselves as queer, at least not in the beginning. A lot of them many not even identify as gay, but as a man who’s attracted to other men. Lauren states that because queer is still a pretty Western concept, OAI doesn’t use it in its vernacular, “we basically want our language to be as relevant to the people we're helping as possible.”
Like Barbara, Maria with SCS also thinks the use of the word ‘queer’ is generational: “There's like an age thing. I would say that people in their 50s up, they still use lesbian, gay.” The younger generation uses and embraces the label queer. This
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was something that Maria observed directly while working in Seattle’s LGBTI community for many years. This juxtaposition of how people self-identity and how they are identified by others is the epitome of social identity. Specifically, it demonstrates Jenkins’ (1994) internal and external dialectic of identification. How others perceive these minority groups is internalized, and then used in the identification process to self-identify. There is also an element of time, as identity is directly linked to the present (Jenkins, 2002a). How LGBTIs self-identify varies depending on temporal contexts. The organizations try to use current social categories that LGBTIs identity with, always more positive than negative.
Another interesting finding was how using the native language of some of the refugees Maria encountered invoked emotion and a sense of connection or commonality. Maria is a refugee from Mexico whose first language is Spanish. She told me that often she’ll speak in Spanish to refugees who become more willing to communicate and are more open with her. Also, if they do not know the English equivalents to the words and concepts they are trying to communicate it is much easier for them to use their native language. Maria told me the story of a man who started to cry with her after she initiated a conversation in Spanish.
So I ask him what happened and he told me, "I don't want to talk to you in Spanish," and he went back to English, and I insisted and I told him, "No way, habla me in español (speak to me in Spanish). What's wrong with speaking in Spanish if you can tell me? You can still use sentences, that's it." He replied, "I just realized that I can tell what happened in English because I don't feel it, but telling you in Spanish, it's like I'm telling you and I'm feeling the pain, I'm feeling the anger." There was this missing connection to the emotions that as soon as I said it to in Spanish just clicked and he was crying. It was too much for him. And so I started asking other people like, "How do you feel when you 207
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talk about your emotions in English?" And a lot of them told me it's liberating because I don’t have all this baggage, I don't fear things as much. There are words that now we can use to say that they're trans, that they're queer, that they didn't have in their language and so it felt really liberating and really good. It's like it gives them a whole completely different world to just be, that's not connected to what happened in the past. It's really interesting.
Maria mentioned that Latinos make up almost 51% of the population in the eastern portion of Washington State. Another observation was the use of the term “Latinx” among younger generations to describe themselves. The “x” at the end of the word replaces traditional uses of the letters “o” and “a.” This makes the label non-gender conforming41 and fluid. Every month, there is a Latinx party in Beacon Hill that is promoted on Facebook and through word of mouth.
One way the NGOs use interpersonal trust to build relationships with their publics is by sharing the same language and vision as those seeking the organization’s aid (Levin & Cross, 2004). Interpersonal trust also enables effective knowledge transfer (Abrams, Cross, Lesser, & Levin, 2003). Because LGBTIs turn to them for information on asylum and other important legal issues, it is imperative that the NGOs are seen as trustworthy and credible.
Training
During my visit ORAM was in the final stages of completing a suite of training information for refugee professionals that will complement its existing body of information. Most of the information on their website is very specific and written in academic and legal jargon. This training information is meant to accommodate those
41 Non-gender conforming means that an individual does not identify as either male or female, they are gender fluid. Latinx applies to both male and females. 208
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refugee professionals who are not able to attend formal training sessions that the organization offers. Lauren states the organization wants everyone to have access to the information:
Most of what ORAM does, I should say, is not just individual legal assistance or representation. Most of what we do, actually, is training refugee professionals to understand LGBT, their needs, so that when they have an LGBT refugee in front of them, they know how to properly handle their case.
OAI devotes a lot of their media trainings for press around the world on proper ways of addressing the LGBTI community in its local media outlets. Barbara indicated that it’s very common in countries where LGBTIs are persecuted for the media to go out of their way to find “the most egregious way to describe people.” To address this problem the organization will travel to media outlets or train them while in the field.
One of the most recent training sessions was in Washington D.C. with one of the most listened-to Iranian news services.
In order to train others the NGOs must conduct their own research. The major purpose of interviewing Seattle’s LGBTI refugees is to gain insight into what unique services the population needs. This will then be turned into reports and training material to educate Seattle’s (and possibly other areas’) city and government officials.
Maria states:
I think it reinforces the idea that they're alone and that they're in danger, and because here they really don't have a network of support, friends. A lot of them don't have family because of the same reason - they're gay. I think those things get augmented by the isolation. They are really scared, and try to pass.
This information is extremely important for an organization like SCS, whose primary function is counseling services. Maria, however, isn’t waiting for the results to start 209
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training. She mentioned that she has already created a presentation that gives service providers an introduction to human rights for LGBTI people around the world, training to help them be more inclusive. She adds:
A lot of agencies see themselves as being inclusive of diversity, but that a lot of times means race or ethnicity, and they don't think about gender, sexual diversity. So how do you do both? So starting to have those conversations. A lot of the service providers told me that they really wanted somebody to continue to do that, so we're thinking that that would be one area of the program, to create a LGBTQ refugee immigrant cultural competency sensitivity training to offer to agencies that want to learn more about it. And then continue to do outreach through this agency so we can create a referral network of folks that we know already have the basics, and at least we can have some trust that if we send somebody there, they're not going to end up feeling worse or feeling that they're being discriminated [against].
Regions of Focus
LGBTI refugees flee from areas all across the globe. By identifying the global regions where a majority of the refugees are coming from, the NGOs are able to better customize their communication efforts. It also helps to identify the areas where harsh, and sometimes deadly, regulations in place against same-sex intimacy. These regions and countries are targeted by the NGOs in an effort to change policy. Stacey stated some of the refugees that JFS was helping at the time came from Kenya and
Afghanistan. Jessica mentioned that a filmmaker in Africa reached out to OutRight and asked to shoot a film in Uganda focusing on the anti-LGBTI laws in that country.
The organization also sees a current influx of refugees from the Middle East. Barbara explains:
So we do do work elevating those particular situations to governments. We also, where there are particularly deadly situations against LGBT as we're finding with crisis in Iraq and Syria, we document that and then we bring that 210
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information to the UN Refugee Commission and other authorities in governments that can do something to help. To raise the status of people to another level so that they can get out when their lives are really in danger. It's been a difficult road, I'm not going to put a gloss on it. The number of refugees in that part of the world is so gargantuan that trying to get particular individuals out because they're under threat is a tough bid.
Mexico is also a place where LGBTIs, especially those who identify as trans* or intersex, are often maltreated. Maria explains:
So they have this legal system to recognize same-sex marriages, but depending on where you are and how come it is the government to enforce that, you might putting yourself in a very dangerous situation if you try to get married. The police might even arrest you or do something to you because you try to do that. They think that then you're fine, but it's not the case. Especially if you're transgender, it's still a very dangerous place.
This is not an exclusive statement that all refugees come from Africa, the Middle East, and Mexico. However, these are the areas where the most radical repercussions are in place for LGBTIs (Asal & Sommer, 2016; Bertrand, 2015). It follows that these areas would be the primary areas of focus for advocacy and human rights awareness. This means that communication endeavors on the part of NGOs are communicated in languages such as Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish among others.
In fact, while this study was being written, there was an upheaval in the United
States over the issue of transgender use of public bathrooms. A law was passed in
South Carolina that restricted where transgender individuals could use bathrooms and locker rooms (Phillips, 2016). The law stipulated that individuals must use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender the individual was born with. The federal government declared the law violates federal civil rights law. The state’s governor, along with other state GOP officials sued the federal government (Berman, Larimer, & 211
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Horwitz, 2016). The Department of Justice then countered with its own lawsuit against
Governor McCrory and the state of North Carolina (Philips, 2016). This was followed by directive from President Obama urging the U.S. Departments of Education and
Justice to interpret Title IX to prohibit discrimination against transgender students
(Kingkade, 2016). GOP officials from Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and North
Carolina among others condemned the directive and advised school districts to disregard President Obama. The cycle of lawsuits and condemnations by both sides of the issue continued through the completion of the study.
Also to consider are the high rates of transwomen murders, twenty-one in 2015
(Kellaway & Brydum, 2016) and ten in 2016 as of May 2016 (Brydum, 2016). Most of the victims were transwomen of color. In 2016 there were also several instances of homophobic violence against LGBTIs all over the United States (Lipp, 2016). There are examples of homophobia and homonegativity in all global regions of the world.
The concentration of the current study’s emphasis on location is to highlight where the most LGBTI refugees are coming from in order to better understand the communication efforts of the NGOs positioning themselves to help.
Media/Challenges
LGBTI refugees’ intersectionality makes them twice marginalized (sexuality and refugee status), and in some cases four times marginalized (religion, as in the case of Muslims in the U.S. and ethnicity). The primary function of these NGOs is to address the unique hardships the refugees face. JFS helps refugees of all ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations, and Stacey has seen the differences first hand: 212
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I'd say it's completely different, in part, because the LGBT refugees are all free cases, which means they don't have an anchor here. The role of the anchor is to really help families or individuals get settled here, get on their feet. And we help the anchor, along with the refugee, but it's not just us creating a structure for each family or individual that comes here; that's case with an anchor. Because the anchor oftentimes will provide short term housing, sometimes money. But with the LGBT refugee, because it's they're all free cases, we really feel the need to provide a structure, and a safe place to live, and a group of volunteers, and someone who can really show them how to build a life here. So it's a very different thing and it's a lot more work… the gay refugees are fleeing their own families as well as police authorities, et cetera. That’s pretty distinct and that’s really powerful.
Maria was baffled at the lack of intersectional advocacy or services when she first arrived in the U.S. as a refugee. She spoke with various organizations and NGOs, some which had been working in immigration advocacy for over 20 years, and slowly made them aware of the presence of LGBTIs in this population. She highlights the importance of addressing this intersectionality, including culture and religion.
When you bring these people from Muslim countries, from the whole Muslim diaspora to Seattle. And then here you see people holding hands, kissing. You have to tell them because those folks are going to be in complete cultural shock. And then they get in trouble because they don't know the laws. They do crazy things that they're not supposed to do, or say things. And you need to tell them.
Not only is the issue of intersectionality a challenge in the U.S. legal system, it is also not addressed in the media. Recently the topics of both LGBTIs and refugees have been salient issues in the media, but rarely do we see mainstream news coverage of the two issues as a collective. Lauren provided an interesting assessment on the state of refugee media coverage:
Communications of LGBT refugees would be easier if, in general, the focus in media on LGBT people was a focus of safety and not necessarily equality. Because equality and justice aren't necessarily the same things. When you have 213
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marriage equality, which I'm not against, but it's a bit privileged. And I think people really like staying in what's happy and nice and privileged for LGBT people. People want to feel good. And there's not a lot to feel good about in this situation. So if the media could make it-- if there could be more of an open conversation and more sharing about the safety needs of LGBT people - and not just refugees, just in general - I think that would make our message be able to transcend a lot better.
When the media covers these issues independently, they are often portrayed through the lens of political interests, particularly negative political rhetoric targeted towards refugees and LGBTIs. Some of the organizations believe that this rhetoric in the media is making their jobs a bit more difficult by introducing negative categorizations of refugees and/or LGBTIS. The organizations have to work more diligently to foster positive counter narratives. Maria has witnessed a shift in some individuals:
This last year with the elections and all the crazy stuff that some people are saying, I'm starting to see some weird things, like an increase of what could be perceived as hate crimes against immigrants refugees, especially Muslims. A lot of police fear around the police interactions. The police here compared to their police, it's fairly well-trained and more humane than others, but there's still that fear that they're going to war with immigration and that they're do things to harm your family.
While, the political rants may be vehement to many observers, Jessica with
OAI feels like politicians, specifically Republican presidential candidate Donald J.
Trump, is only saying controversial things to secure the nomination. She feels much of his rhetoric will be toned down once he gets it. She does, however, feel that Trump’s candidacy has brought to light something more sinister:
The problem with him is that he has awakened a virulently racist and despicable group of Americans that we always knew were there but they
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weren't quite as vocal and as visible, and he's awoken them. That's the real danger. He's not the danger, it's that his supporters are the danger. Horrible!
LGBTI refugees/asylees living in the Bay Area, New York City, or even Seattle, may not come in direct contact with such individuals described by Jessica. However, there are likely some people residing in these metropolitan areas that harbor such homonegativity. Furthermore, these types of close-minded homonegative individuals may still come into contact with other LTBTIs in other areas of the U.S. These refugees are leaving hostile environments and, as discussed in the previous chapter, they fear they may encounter the same types of discrimination and persecution in their country of asylum. Jessica said the sentiment of the refugees was represented in a tweet she read in the week she spoke with me, “Welcome to what we see every day!”
These are the exact sentiments and attitudes from which the refugees fled. This sentiment was made even more salient after Trump called for a ban on all Muslims (as well as surveillance against mosques and establishing a database for all Muslims living in the U.S.), which was met with enthusiasm by many of his supporters
(Diamond, 2016).
On the other hand, Ron thinks that the climate created by this political rhetoric is also underscoring the need to help in certain individuals.
There's a bigger, interesting issue in the LGBT community about people's awareness of global issues and awareness of what our role is, and awareness that, as things move forward for us, there's sometimes a backlash affected elsewhere. And don't we have some responsibility to the bigger international community? So some of the work is raising people's awareness about that, and then some of it's specific to our program. I feel like things are definitely moving in a good direction, and some, honestly, some of it now is motivated by the very public, visible, anti-refugee and anti-gay tenor of the Republican 215
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campaign. I think it motivates people to say, "I don't want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of something that's the opposite."
The rhetoric not only brings attention to the work these NGOs are doing, but it also serves as a catalyst for those who are opposed to such negativity to speak up and/or act out. Stacey agrees with Ron, adding that the rhetoric is “ugly, and it’s hateful and it’s racist, and it’s all kinds of things.” When people are exposed to it, it draws them closer to organizations that represent something counter to it. For Stacey, the issue is systemic and is expanding to something greater, something global. It’s not just endemic to the U.S. To the same reaction, Lauren with ORAM adds:
But I would say that in general, yes, the overall rhetoric in terms of refugees and refugee crisis is very scary. And I think while it's understandable to an extent why people are afraid, because people don't understand and they don't necessarily know what refugees means and why they're coming, but it still makes it very [cool] to help refugees and to help people ensure their human rights.
The political rhetoric broadcast through the media and shared via social media, encourages a very distinct categorization for various types of minority groups including refugees, LGBTIs, and Muslims. These groups are characterized as being dangerous, freeloading, and immoral among others. This complicates the NGO’s job of creating positive representations of the LGBTI refugees. The possibility of LGBTIs internalizing these negative categorizations into their identity (as discussed in Chapter seven) is even greater given the media’s continuous coverage of politicians like
Donald J. Trump.
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Anonymity
Anonymity and fear are two major challenges facing the NGOs.
Communication personnel must concentrate a great portion of their efforts to crafting messages directed at refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees. As mentioned above, posters, flyers, pamphlets, and other tangible materials are created to reach individuals who need the services provided by the NGOs. At SCS Maria recounted a strategy she employed while collecting research for her organization:
Having the laptop there and telling people, "Look this is totally confidential. If you don't want to see me ever again, you can. Nobody is going to know who you are, where you're from, nothing. You can even change your age, whatever. Just answer these questions." And that worked.
Maria found that anonymity was imperative in order for her to collect information from LGBTI refugees, information that was vital in customizing her organization’s services to serve the unique needs of the marginalized population:
What I found is that anonymity is very, very important, and absolute confidentiality is the other thing. I talk to people - especially from African countries - that were really, really afraid of being outed by mistake. And so what I started doing was I had a laptop with the survey in it, and I showed them that there was no names, nothing that I could trace back to them, no numbers, no nothing. I just gave them an ID number for the survey and that was it. And that did it.
Sharing personal stories makes this sensitive population weary that there could be repercussions on their family members back home. Stacey with JFS mentioned, “a lot of them, even the ones who've been rejected from their families, still really care about their family's safety.” This may be a big reason that many refugees don't use any identifying details or want any pictures taken. Ron adds that they may speak to a
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reporter, but they will not use their real name or let video footage be taken. There’s even a risk that the reporters may misrepresent their experiences.
As mentioned above, these stories are powerful and support the organization’s outreach. However, people working at the organizations are aware of the trauma, both physical and emotional, that these refugees have undergone, and therefore remain empathetic and ethical in communication efforts. There are cultural differences that must also be taken into consideration. Stacey adds, “some people don't want to talk about the past. They really prefer to think about their future, and they feel that being asked to talk about what happened is traumatizing.”
Chapter Conclusion
The LGBTI refugee/asylee-focused NGO is positioned to help a very unique and doubly stigmatized population. Their communication efforts via legacy and new media are targeted to two different publics. One public is made up of advocates and those interested in contributing monetary donations to further the organization’s mission. The other public is made up of LGBTIs world-wide who are under threat and seek refuge and asylum. Their overall mission is to get these individuals to safety and help them acculturate in their host countries.
Specific to identity, the niche NGOs strive to create counter-narratives to the repressive, homonegative ones in order to foster positive and nurturing categorizations of LGBTI refugees and asylees. An individual’s social identity is created through a process of external categorizations and internal identifications (Jenkins, 2000). The individuals in the current study’s sample come from Middle Eastern countries where 218
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harsh sanctions are imposed on people who practice same-sex intimacy. This is one of the global regions the NGOs focused a majority of their attention.
Just as the internalization of these pejorative categorizations may have caused the LGBTIs to internalize negative and deviant identifications with their identity, the reverse is also possible. As LGBTIs interact with more positive and nuanced categorizations of LGBTIs, refugees, asylees, and the intersection of those identities, they begin to internalize new meanings of the category. An individual’s experience of the consequences of being categorized may, over time, lead to an adjustment in the individual’s self-image in the direction of the categorizations (Jenkins, 1994).
The NGOs also focus on creating a more encouraging and supportive environment for the LGBTIs in their new post-asylum environment. By fostering a sense of tolerance coupled with volunteers and staff who are LGBTI-friendly, the
NGO introduces a social institution where more advantageous interactions can take place. These interactions help shape and reshape meaning for the LGBTIs, ultimately helping them create a social identity that cultivates happiness and a sense of self- worth.
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CHAPTER X
CONCLUSION
Identity is produced and reproduced through social interaction (Jenkins, 1994).
This study’s main goal was to investigate how social interactions – embedded in the lived experiences of gay refugees/asylees during their migration process – created and shaped meaning specific to their identity. More specifically, the current study looked at social interactions using communication, both mediated and interpersonal, to negotiate identity. Intersectionality, marginalization, and power come together in shaping the identities of the gay refugees/asylees. Throughout the migration process they internalized and rejected various categorizations of gay, refugee, male, gender, and religion, among others.
For most of the interviewees, being a refugee was substantially part of who they were. It defined their past and situated their present. For others, however,
‘refugee’ was an identity they wanted to shed. They wanted to create a new life and leave their pasts behind them. This was mainly attributed to negative categorizations of ‘refugee’ that the interviewees encountered post-asylum. In both scenarios, however, being gay was still the most salient attribute of their identities. The fact that the refugees were being persecuted for their sexuality immediately made their sexuality more salient in the identity negotiation process. Spatial and temporal factors also directly influenced the salience of their sexuality. Not only did the gay refugees/asylees internalize more positive categorizations of ‘gay’ in the queer
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diaspora of San Francisco’s Castro district, but they also were able to perform various facets of that identity in digital and physical spaces.
As Marwan stated, the journey through migration and the interactions with other gay men, LGBTIs, and LGBTI refugees post-asylum served as a “detoxification process” and led to internal acceptance. The media they consumed pre-asylum helped the gay refugees/asylees realize “what they were,” while the media post-asylum helped them negotiate “who they are.” Social identity is a constant process, always in flux, permanently bounded by time, space, and social interactions. While their migration to the U.S. seems to be linear, the process of identity negotiation is everything but that. The refugees continuously interact with various social groups, governments, legal systems, municipalities, and one another. The interactions, individually and in tandem, work to create and shape meaning to what being ‘gay,’ and for some ‘queer,’ actually is; and for each one of the refugees, it means something different.
English language proficiency and computer literacy skills played an important role in the gay refugee/asylee’s communication both pre-and post-asylum. In the pre- asylum context the individuals who knew English were able to consume Western media that helped inform them on LGBTI lifestyle, community, and behavior. This was internalized by the interviewees and helped them shape their attitudes and, ultimately, their identity. Those who held computer skills were able to further investigate the nuances of gay Western culture. They were introduced to new categorizations of gay that was either in agreement or in opposition with how they felt 221
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internally. This instigated a negotiation process that Jenkins (2000) terms ‘reflexifity.’
The interviewees had to consciously and carefully think about these categorizations and if they were going to internalize them. Those categorizations that were similar to how they felt internally reinforced their identification with a gay social identity. Those that were in opposition, usually imposed by regimes of power – specifically government and religion—were rejected.
Also manifested through the LGBTI refugee-focused NGO interviews was the fact that the organizations recognized the importance of English and computer literacy. The NGOs helped refugees (both LGBTIs and not) learn English skills, among other forms of assistance. English language skills are essential for many employment opportunities in the U.S. Without proficient English skills individuals are not able to navigate job advertisements (Bloch, 1999) or may impede his/her ability to obtain a reasonable or reputable job (Bloch, 2002). Refugees need these types of jobs in order to support themselves. English, however, was something the NGOs focused on primarily during the post-asylum phase for the LGBTI refugees/asylees. Their communication endeavors that focused on pre-asylum refugees still living under persecution were disseminated in various languages that corresponded to those regions of the world with the most critical sanctions.
In terms of social media, Facebook is widely used by this population. The interviewees used Facebook in both their home and host countries. Most didn’t use
Twitter and even fewer used other social media such as Instagram or Snapchat. For a majority of the gay refugees/asylees, social media was only a tool to find other 222
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refugees and gay people in their host country of asylum. They primarily used interpersonal communication to figure out the acculturation and asylum processes. The interviewees were so used to hiding and using the Internet and social media to communicate, that once they got to the U.S. they were able to let their guard down somewhat and be themselves, although not entirely as I just explained. San Francisco in particular provided a social environment of self-expression free of judgment and persecution. The city is openly gay and non-apologetic in its queerness. For many of the refugees, the city had been a beacon of queerness since their teenage years. San
Francisco provided a tangible space for the gay refugees/asylees to interact face-to- face, outside the confines of the digital spaces they were used to pre-asylum, as well as influenced how the interviewees interpreted gay culture and identity.
The gay refugees/asylees I interviewed and observed primarily sought the company of other gays. Most of the refugees expressed their discomfort with straight people from their homelands, a decision that was empowered by San Francisco and its acceptance of LGBTIs. They didn’t want to settle in traditional diasporic neighborhoods and, instead, wanted to be with other gay individuals. They didn’t want the oppression, violence, and hatred they experienced to follow them to the U.S. The interviewees wanted to shape a new identity and most shed their religion and cultural ties to an extent. Their gay identity was more salient than any other. For some of the refugees, they found solace and a sense of culture in the company of other gay Middle
Easterners. While they settled in a queer diaspora in San Francisco, most further siloed themselves into subgroups based on their Middle Eastern cultural roots – the group 223
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SWANABAQ is a perfect example. Here the gay refugees/asylees not only shared their queerness, but also their cultural traditions and language.
This brings us to the topic of how collectivities form. The current study demonstrates how this specific group of LGBTIs navigated between these groups and categories in the queer diaspora. They are strangers who were welcomed by others who shared their gay and queer identities, or deeply empathized with them. They categorized individuals living amongst them and internalized the ways in which they were categorized in return. They formed groups with those who shared their sexual orientation, and also with those who shared a common culture. The strongest of these group identifications were with those individuals who shared both their queerness and their culture.
The LGBTI refugee/asylee-focused NGOs also aided in the formation and transmission of these categorizations. They used mediated messages to post information on how LGBTIs living under persecution could obtain help relocating and obtaining asylum. They used social media, specifically, to reach out to publics for help and support. They also disseminated messages that helped to inform and educate individuals world-wide about LGBTIs, thus producing categorizations that were positive and supportive.
In the queer diaspora, these niche NGOs also used interpersonal communication with publics to recruit volunteers and donors. They held fundraisers and had a physical presence at various events around the area. They relied on the assistance of LGBTIs whom they aided in the asylum process to help them advocate 224
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and educate. They also employed interpersonal communication to help reach LGBTIs already living in the diaspora to make them aware of services that were tailored to their unique situations.
Personal Reflexivity
Researching and writing this dissertation also contributed to personal growth and realization on my part. Each interaction, whether it was in an individual interview or in group observations, helped me reshape my understanding on what being a
Middle Eastern gay refugee/asylee entailed. It was also a lesson in qualitative data collection and analysis. I went in with a well-structured plan, but found out quickly that things seldom go to according to plan. I had three people in total back out of interviews and one person who didn’t want to be recorded. These are the things one encounters in qualitative fieldwork, especially when dealing with such sensitive populations.
There were, however, many things that did go to plan and were essential to this study. I was able to find a specific group of individuals who allowed me to observe and interview them. They provided me with very rich and informative data that transpired into a deep and personal account of identity negotiation. I also was given access by NGOs that helped build trust and rapport with each participant.
I knew going into this data collection that there would be some who wouldn’t want to speak about their experiences. Even when I made friends with some of the refugees and hung out with them, some were still uncomfortable sharing their stories.
They either wanted to stay anonymous and to themselves or were fearful that the 225
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interview might jeopardize their chances at asylum. Also, some are not out to their families back home and didn’t want to risk any information getting back to them. This anonymity signified that these individuals had not fully internalized a gay identity and were still considering the negative categorizations that some individuals harbored.
I also learned that I need to find an opinion leader, like I did with Reza – someone who the others trust that can advocate for me. Trust is important in such research and advocacy efforts. Trust establishes rapport, usually providing the researcher greater access. Through the dissertation process I also developed and refined communication skills, which will prove helpful in my continued work in this field.
There were some individuals who didn’t arrive in the U.S. through an NGO or traditional refugee processes. I met refugees who used the education system to get to the United States and then filed for asylum. There are many ways to get to the United
States, as I am discovering through the people who have lived them. Lawyers play an important role in the asylum process. I feel like my next endeavor, and a key piece of my longer term research agenda, is to interview LGBTI asylum and immigration lawyers. As expressed in Chapters Seven and Eight, most of the gay refugees/asylees were introduced to their lawyers through other refugees and asylees. It would be beneficial to examine how immigration and asylum lawyers use communication to contact and help LGBTI refugees. There would unquestionably be distinctions between this population and other groups the lawyers work with.
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Future directions would include interviewing family members of LGBTI refugees and how they adapt. There is evidence in the current study, particularly
Reza’s experience with his mother recounted in Chapter Eight, that subjective differences affect how an individual reacts to a loved one coming out as an LGBTI in
Middle Eastern countries. Interpersonal contact was also found to be a factor in acceptance and categorization of change. Some individuals who were directly related to the gay refugees/asylees had more accepting categorizations of gays, whereas others still held tight to the categories of their belief systems and regimes of power in their native countries. These findings warrant more study as they appear to influence the identities and migration experiences of the gay refugees/aslees.
Implications
The current study’s theoretical implications fall into three broad categories.
First, it furthers our understanding of social identity by engaging its theoretical tenets in mediated contexts. Interactions with media help shape meaning for individuals. The interviewees utilized television shows, the Internet, and social media to help shape their understandings of gay culture and, ultimately, shape their social identities.
Although mediated communication was used by the interviewees, it was superseded by interpersonal communication. Face-to-face interactions were used to create meaning for asylum and acculturation. At times both mediated and interpersonal methods were used complementary and not directly in competition to one another.
Through a process of categorization (Jenkins, 1994, 2008), the interviewees gravitated to individuals who were similar to them. Interaction fostered a sense of group 227
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membership and resulted in the gay refugees/asylees using this network of individuals to help shape their self-concept and social identities.
Second, the current study also extends social identity by establishing LGBTI, refugee, and asylee as social identities. The same processes that Jenkins (1994, 2000,
2002a, 2002b, 2008) lays out in the social identity process, specifically the internal/external dialectic of identity, can be applied to various types of social categories. Specific to this population of gay refugees/asylees, the manifestation of anonymity is important to note. By requesting to remain anonymous, these individuals demonstrated that they had not fully internalized a gay identity. There exists a liminal space within the social identity process where these individuals partially internalize a gay identity, and perform it in front of selective audiences. However, they still consider and partially internalize negative categorizations of a gay identity and refuse perform it in front of family, friends, and other individuals or entities who may find it deviant. This liminal space is genuinely where identity negotiation takes place.
Lastly, the study also contributes to international communication scholarship by revealing that international media – specifically Western media – still has an enormous amount of influence on how individuals in non-Western regions of the world identify and come to think about LGBTI issues. Legacy media, particularly
Western television shows that are broadcasted via satellite, inform Middle Eastern audiences in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria on gay culture, among other pop culture knowledge. The study also demonstrates that international news, no matter how the
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content is framed, can make LGBTI issues salient for those individuals in global regions where being gay is relegated to negative and pejorative categorizations.
In regards to social media, gay refugees/asylees use various forms of social media applications on computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones to remain in contact with friends and family members in their home countries. These mediated platforms serve as discursive spaces for gay refugees/asylees to present themselves in ways that are congruent to normative expectations of those individuals whom they communicate with, evident of Goffman’s concept of idealization (1959). The current study also demonstrates that in global areas where social media is regulated, individuals either employ virtual private networks (VPNs) or change apps in order to evade government and other supranational surveillance.
The implications of the current study extend beyond academia and apply to professional endeavors, and the pragmatic implications are also twofold. The study provides rich and nuanced information to LGBTI-rights activists and professionals who endeavor to aid LGBTIs in areas of the world where they are persecuted. It provides insight as to how these individuals consume media in order to seek asylum and information on LGBTI culture. Additionally, this research demonstrates that interpersonal communication has more impact on asylum seeking and acculturation than does mediated communication. LGBTI refugee/asylee-focused NGOs, as well as other LGBTI-rights activists, can use this information to imporove their current modes of communication and outreach.
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Closing Thoughts
Social Identity is contextual and in most cases consequential. “The capacity of others to constitute the experience of daily living is perhaps the most important contribution of social categorization to individual and group identification” (Jenkins,
2000, p. 22). LGBTIs living in countries where same-sex intimacy is punishable by harsh sanctions have been socialized in homophobic and homonegative environments.
There is a dynamic of power and control that comes into play with these individuals.
Regimes of power not only categorize these individuals, but also intervene to alter the group’s social world, which, to an extent, alters the world and the experiences of those living in it (Jenkins, 1994). In the case of LGBTIs, this intervention usually comes at a heavy cost.
The current study provides a profound and meaningful narrative of the lived experiences of gay refugees/asylees from exile to asylum, and explicates the roles communication plays in identity negotiation process. The experiences they shared help inform those within and outside of academia on the current state of social identity and world-wide persecution of the LGBTI community. Our social worlds are most often limited by our own lived experiences and, from a Western perspective, it is almost impossible to imagine such oppression and anguish exist outside the boundaries of our daily experiences or even our understanding. It is my hope that those who read this dissertation take a moment to reflect on the status quo of not just the Arabic and
Middle East regions, but all regions of the globe. How does what we say and how we behave affect the way others internalize our words and actions? 230
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Table 6.1
LGBTI Refugees/Asylees Interviewed Name Native Country Asylum Status Ibrahim Iraq Applied Mahdi Iran Granted Reza Iran Granted Marwan Syria Granted Nassim Lebanon Granted Atif Saudi Arabia Applied Note. (N = 6) Each individual consented to being recorded. Pseudonyms were assigned to maintain anonymity.
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Table 6.2
LGBTI Refugee-Focused NGO/Organization Employees Interviewed Organization Job Title City ORAM Director San Francisco ORAM Communications San Francisco OutRight Action Communications New York City OutRight Action Digital Communications New York City Jewish Family Services Director Berkeley Jewish Family Services Refugee Coordinator Berkeley Seattle Counseling Services Program Director Seattle Note. (N = 7) Each individual consented to being recorded. Pseudonyms were assigned to maintain anonymity.
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Appendix A
LGBTI Refugee/Asylee Interview Questions
1. Tell me about your life back in your home country.
2. How much English did you know before you came to the U.S.?
3. Did you use the Internet on a computer, laptop, or mobile?
4. Was there anything in media (legacy or social media) that informed you on
where to migrate to?
5. How did you get from (native country) to the U.S.?
6. How did you fit in here with the other refugees/asylum seekers?
7. Tell me about your life here in (current city) compared to back home.
8. Do you currently use the Internet? Social Media? If so how often and for what
purposes?
9. Do you search for LGBTI issues? Why and where?
10. Do you reach out to LGBTIs in your home country?
11. How do the images or rhetoric you see/hear in the media here in the U.S.
different/similar to back home?
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Appendix B
Organization/NGO Interview Questions
1. What is your job title and duties within the organization?
2. Please describe a typical work day.
3. How would you describe the identity of your organization?
4. What roles do communication (legacy and/or digital) play in that identity?
5. How do you get in contact with potential refugees/asylum seekers?
6. What types of communication does the organization utilize, both internal and
external?
7. How do you endeavor to integrate refugees/asylum seekers into your digital
media after they’ve been granted asylum?
8. How could the organization’s communication be improved to better align with
its goals??
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Appendix C
Textual Analysis Example (Any possible identifiers were whited out)
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Appendix D
ATLAS.ti Example
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Appendix E
Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval Letter
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