For this year’s World Refugee Day, on 20th June 2022 we brought together a panel of experts to focus on the real experiences of LGBTQ+ people claiming asylum in the UK.

This spectacular panel, hosted at Google’s office, brought together four of the leading LGBTQ+ refugee and housing charities, with speakers from Stonewall Housing, African Rainbow Family, Rainbow Migration and Micro Rainbow.

Together they discussed:

• The needs and experiences of LGBTQ+ people claiming asylum in the UK
• The realities of living in Home Office accommodation
• What happens when queer people have to ‘prove’ their sexuality or gender identities
• The legal challenges to the recent flight to Rwanda
• What people can do to support LGBTQ+ people in need who arrive in the UK

Our speakers were:

Kay Diamanti (she/her) from Stonewall Housing
Moud Goba (she/her) from Micro Rainbow
Sonia Lenegan (she/her) from Rainbow Migration
Zarith Hanipah (he/him) from African Rainbow Family

With love and thanks:

We want to say a huge thank you to our panel of experts, to Bobbi Pickard from Trans in the City who hosted the event, to Google for giving us the space and for streaming the event globally, and to Fragomen who generously sponsored the event.