Centretown support groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) immigrants and refugees are hoping to expand the services currently provided in the city, claiming that what’s in place is not enough.
The Centretown Community Health Centre has been running its LGBTQ Newcomers Group monthly since January 2014. The support group is aimed at helping individuals who have left their home countries – sometimes because of discrimination or even persecution related to their sexuality or gender identity – to adjust to their new life in Canada.
This type of support includes familiarizing newcomers with the rights they have in Canada, how the legal system works, and how the Canadian culture differs from that of their native country.
“What we wanted to do was create something that would in particularly help bring together people who are isolated, and kind of be a way to promote that this work is being done at the centre with some of our community partners,” says Ernie Gibbs, LGBTQ youth mental health counsellor at the Cooper Street health centre.
He explains that queer individuals who have moved to Canada need different support than most who identify as LGBTQ because of the challenges they face adjusting to their new life.
“That’s often a part that’s very difficult for them – to build a genuine sense of belonging,” he says, “where they can come out around their religion or their culture and make connections here without fear of being rejected.”
Merissa Taylor-Meissner, one of the programming co-cordinators for the Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre at Carleton University, says that support for these people is crucial.
“It can save someone’s life – just having someone there to relate to you, to provide resources, and to provide understanding,” she says.
However, despite this type of support being offered in Ottawa, some say it is not enough.
Lukayo Estrella is the senior manager of the Ottawa branch of Jer’s Vision – a Canadian organization meant to help eliminate discrimination and homophobia in schools and local communities – and a volunteer for the Ontario Council for Agencies Serving Immigrants.
Estrella says that the LGBTQ newcomer support system in Ottawa has less support available for individual cultures. While cities such as Toronto will have groups dedicated to queer immigrants from specific regions or cultures, Ottawa support groups don’t currently have the capacity to do the same.
According to the 2011 National Household Survey, there are just over 200,000 immigrants living in Ottawa, as opposed to the 2.5 million immigrants living in Toronto. When the numbers are smaller, it is harder to meet specific support needs.
“We all have different cultural contexts, different laws, different histories, but at the same time we’re all newcomers – so that’s the best we can do,” Estrella says.
In addition to their different cultural backgrounds, newcomers may also be dealing with a number of different issues resulting from their move to Canada.
Individuals who attend these support groups in Ottawa have often faced harassment in their home countries because of their sexuality or gender identity. Many faced disownment from their families, prosecution, or even death if they had exposed their sexual orientation or gender self-identification.
And while Canada does specifically take in LGBTQ refugees seeking asylum on the basis of persecution, the process can be more difficult in their circumstances.
In order to be taken in as a refugee based on sexuality-related issues, one must have evidence that they are, in fact, identifiably part of the LGBTQ community. This evidence typically comes in the form of documented proof, such as photographs of someone kissing their same-sex partner, love letters, or written statements by partners or family.
“What’s really scary about that is that most people have destroyed all evidence of it so they won’t be killed in their homeland,” says Estrella.
Estrella argues that it doesn’t make sense for someone to be asked to keep and provide this personal evidence, which could accidentally reveal what, in many cases, these individuals are trying to hide from their communities.
“How do you do that when that’s the reason people are trying to kill you?”
According to the CBC, over 70 countries persecute homosexuality, and seven of those countries – Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, and Mauritania – punish by death.
In contrast, only 18 countries, including Canada, have legalized same-sex marriage.
Ottawa-based Pink Triangle Services, a support service for the LGBTQ community, will often provide letters of intent to refugees still seeking approval for their claim, to explain that the individual they are writing about has used PTS services in the past because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The different needs of LGBTQ newcomers – divided by both culture and personal circumstances – leaves support workers feeling like there should be more resources available to help them.
Estrella says that there was a meeting in the fall with different support groups about providing cultural competency training for LGBTQ youth support organizations, but the process has not gone past that.
Gibbs says that the Centretown CHC is considering adapting a series of workshops that are already offered for newcomers into Canada to focus specifically on integration for LGBTQ newcomers. Groups would be run more often than the monthly ones currently in place.
The next meeting of the CCHC newcomers group will be on March 9.