Elise Stolte: Edmonton Pride is still alive and disruptors deserve to be heard
Adebayo Katiiti, the founder of RaricaNow, an organization supporting LGBTQ refugee claimants. He is a transgender man originally from Uganda who sought asylum in Canada. He's seen in Edmonton, on Thursday, May 30, 2019.
Basel Abou Hamrah now has a caseload of more than 100 LGBTQ refugees.
Most arrive absolutely alone, says the settlement practitioner at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers. Disowned by their families, they don’t seek support from their ethnocultural community either, because it’s the homophobia back home that sent them fleeing.
They end up at homeless shelters, struggle to find housing, get lost in a complex asylum process and, supporters say, sometimes fail to tell their story clearly because of that. For them, deportation can mean death.
In the past, many refugees turned to the Pride Centre, says Abou Hamrah. But their needs and experiences are very different than those of Canadian-born community members. “They don’t fit,” he said. The refugees have been in the closet all their lives; many went to prison, were beaten and saw friends killed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
That’s important context for anyone trying to understand why the traditional Pride Festival isn’t happening this year. It would have launched next week.
As Edmonton becomes better known as an open place, welcoming to the LGBTQ community, more refugees from that community choose to locate here. But help is thin when they arrive.
Other minority groups also feel Pride’s parties, glamour and celebration aren’t matching their experience. That’s why two organizations, RaricaNow and Shades of Colour, wanted a change. They asked for funding to share their story, too, and space at the festival.
I don’t know exactly why those conversations broke down, but they did, dramatically.
In April, the Edmonton Pride Festival Society cancelled the parade and festival. No one from the society was available to comment this week.
MacEwan University’s LGBTQ2S+ community, faculty, staff and visitors paint a rainbow sidewalk as the institution unveils a series of rainbow and transgender-themed crosswalks as Pride month kicks off.
Adebayo Katiiti, RaricaNow founder, says they just want awareness.
In many countries, homosexuality is a crime and police are still raiding Pride events, jailing organizers. “Black transpeople are being killed. People want to celebrate Pride when all this is happening? It’s a life-and-death situation. Cops, military, they’re on the streets arresting LGBTQ people. It’s intense. You just have to stand in solidarity.”
It seems like one step forward, two steps back for LGBTQ rights internationally. On the same day last week, the first same-sex couples were able to marry in Taiwan and Kenya’s high court voted to keep criminal laws against homosexuality.
Katiiti fled Uganda after getting picked up by police at a Pride event. In custody, he was stripped, photographed naked, beaten and tortured. His picture ran on national news and his family disowned him.
But he was scheduled to leave for Canada within two days to attend the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Championships. When he got out on bail, he hid at a safe house, then claimed asylum in Edmonton after the competition.
In a recent documentary about local LGBTQ refugees, another transgender man says he fled because his brother planned to gang rape him to prove he was a woman. A transgender woman says her father took her to a witch doctor to be cut and burned in an effort to “cure” her. Her boyfriend was beaten to death by a mob.
Another woman was tortured by police with electric shock at the request of her father until she promised police she would not be gay.
The documentary, A Long Road to Peace, is being screened Monday evening at Metro Cinema to kick off Pride month.
In the case of the transgender woman taken to a witch doctor, her refugee claim and appeal were recently denied. Katiiti and Abou Hamrah say the translator at the hearing was homophobic and didn’t share what the woman said accurately.
She’s gone into hiding, worried she’ll be killed if deported.
“Those are the most heart-breaking situations,” says Heather Razaghi, a member of St. Paul’s United Church who helped Katiiti settle and file his claim as part of the social justice committee. “(Others) haven’t been able to make those claims fairly and equally. If people knew those details, they wouldn’t be so quick to judge.”
Randy Boissonneault, MP and special advisor on LGBTQ2 issues, says no one officially submitted a complaint about homophobic interpreters here. But in an interview, he said he’ll work with the Mennonite Centre to ensure Canada’s immigration boards have access to interpreters claimants can trust.
I know a lot of people are still upset the Pride Festival is cancelled. But Pride is still alive.
On June 8, Evolution Wonderlounge is helping host Pride on 103, an all-day street festival downtown raising money for LGBTQ support organizations. On June 28, there’s a rally commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which kicked off the gay-rights movement in North America. That’s at the Alberta legislature, with an after party to follow. Those are just two of the largest events.
I hope Pride Festival organizers and local activists can sort this out before next year. Life is complex, full of joy and sorrow. The fact people suffer in many countries doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate progress here. But it does mean we should at least make space to listen.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to reflect that Taiwan legalized same sex marriage.
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