Rainbow Railroad Provides Refuge to LGBTQ People

Brut America

Homosexual activity between consenting adults is still illegal in 73 countries. Rainbow Railroad is saving lives by helping LGBTQ people find a safe haven.

Transcript

00:00There are 70 million people around the world that are displaced. That's the highest number

00:11of people since the Second World War. You can imagine how many queer folks that is.

00:23Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian-based international organization whose mandate is to help persecuted

00:30LGBTQI people facing persecution find safety. We get requests from around the world of people

00:37who are facing life-and-death situations or are in danger. We provide the ticket and actually

00:42pay for their relocation to a safer country and help them get connected with resources

00:50to help them settle in a new country.

01:13If you are outed in some of these countries, you end up being excommunicated from your

01:19community, from your church, losing your job, and then you're often victim of a homophobic

01:28or transphobic violence. Once you've done that, you literally have nowhere to go.

01:33Everyone has a universal right to claim asylum for persecution, but governments and structures

01:55actively make it difficult for individuals to do so. We exist to try to push through

02:01those barriers to allow individuals to find those pathways.

02:14If things got better, then we would not need to exist. Our end goal is the wider acceptance

02:21of LGBTQ people, and especially. What's consistent about everyone I interviewed or talked to

02:27who are facing persecution is that they would rather just be home.

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