A Requirement of Shame: On the Evolution of the Protection of LGB Refugees

Development summary

This article traces how the difficulties faced by lesbian, gay and bisexual refugees in asylum procedures have evolved over time, with a particular focus on Sweden and the Netherlands. It argues that efforts to include LGB people have, in some settings, turned shame into an implicit legal requirement; although the DSSH model was meant to encourage open-ended discussion of sexual-orientation fluidity, the contexts examined here reportedly produced legal expectations centred on suffering and internalised homophobia, while credibility-based procedure and the treatment of sexual orientation as a fixed identity became decisive in border-control bureaucracy.