"At some point during that endless wait, the UK slowly became my home. I began to feel connections and love toward Sheffield: real, grounding affection, that I had never felt toward my hometown of Donetsk. For the first time in my life, I felt safe walking down the street. No one shouted slurs at me for being queer. No one mocked me for being autistic. No one pushed me because I looked weird."
"I'm trans, autistic, and I have been a refugee in the UK for two years, hoping to apply for citizenship in three years time. It has been an extremely long journey. Before finally receiving my status, I lived as an asylum seeker for five years: five years suspended in uncertainty, five years without right to work, five years of bureaucratic nightmares that led to PTSD, five years waiting for permission to build a life."
"That fragile sense of safety is now being shaken. The UK government is introducing an extreme new anti-immigration law: one that could force refugees to wait up to twenty years for citizenship, impose brutal barriers to family reunification, and make the already- hostile environment even harsher. The message is unmistakable: You are not welcome here, and you will never truly belong. As a member of the community, I hear stories from other LGBTQ+ refugees."
A trans, autistic refugee recounts five years as an asylum seeker in the UK, living with uncertainty, no right to work, bureaucratic trauma and PTSD before receiving status. The narrator developed connections and a sense of safety in Sheffield, experiencing freedom from slurs, mockery and physical threat. New proposed asylum laws could force refugees to wait up to twenty years for citizenship, impose harsh barriers to family reunification, and heighten an already hostile environment. Anti-LGBTQ+ media and political rhetoric deepen feelings of exclusion and threaten fragile trust, stability and prospects for building a life.
Read at PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news
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