Murray, ‘Real Queer?’, 2015

David A. B. Murray, Real Queer?: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Refugees in the Canadian Refugee Apparatus, Toronto: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2015

Abstract

“How do I prove I’m gay?” This is the central question for many refugee claimants who are claiming asylum on the basis of sexual orientation persecution. But what are the inherent challenges in obtaining this proof? How is the system that assesses this predicated upon homonormative frameworks and nervous borders? What is the impact of gender, race and class? What is an ‘authentic’ sexual or gender identity and how can it be performed?

Real Queer? is an ethnographic examination of the Canadian refugee apparatus analysing the social, cultural, political and affective dimensions of a legal and bureaucratic process predicated on separating the ‘authentic’ from the ‘bogus’ LGBT refugee. Through interviews, conversations and participant observation with various participants ranging from refugee claimants to their lawyers, Refugee Protection Division staff and local support group workers, it reveals the ways in which sexuality simultaneously disrupts and is folded into the nation-state’s dynamic modes of gate-keeping, citizenship and identity-making, and the uneven effects of these discourses and practices on this category of transnational migrants.

Contents

Introduction / 1. Queering the Queer Migration to Liberation Nation Narrative / 2. Becoming an ‘Authentic’ SOGI Refugee / 3. How to be Gay (Refugee Version) / 4. Producing Documentation for SOGI Refugee Claims / 5. Discourse and Emotion in SOGI Refugee Hearings / 6. National Documentation Packages and Expert Witness Reports / 7. The Challenge of Home / Conclusion: The New Normal /