Sometimes my country really sucks.

[baratron]

So, apparently there was a bisexual man who couldn't come to BiCon this year even though it was in Leeds, where he lives, and even though he has mental health problems and would have really benefited from our supportive, disability-friendly community. That's because the Home Office has thrown him into a detention centre and are in the process of trying to deport him back to Jamaica, where he originates from. Even though his mother, partner, and baby are all here and sending him away from them denies his basic human right to a family life.

Apparently the judge in the court case doesn't believe he's bisexual, because his partner is a woman.

Y'know what? The partner I live with is a man. I'm still fucking bisexual. I would still be in fucking danger if I were to end up in a country that doesn't like queers.

I don't know if Jamaica is dangerous (although the comments on this Jamaican newspaper article are quite telling), and that's not the part that makes me angry. It's the fact that the judge has decided bisexuality isn't real, that if someone's long-term partner is of the opposite gender to themselves then they must be lying about having same-sex attractions.

That is just not right. Bisexuality is as real as any other sexual orientation. I happen to have a long-term relationship with a man, but I also very much like women and genderqueer people and non-binary gendered people. My partners and ex-partners and potential new partners are of a variety of genders and biological sexes, and that's just how I'm wired. If you look at me as a woman married to a man and declare that I must be straight, then you're eroding a big part of my history and my future. That would make me angry.

But you know what? Go ahead and do it if you want to, it won't actually harm me. My life isn't in danger, because I was born in the UK and have British citizenship. This poor sod's life is, because he wasn't, and our supposedly so-tolerant country can't accept that bisexuals are actually a thing.

I shall be writing to Theresa May as soon as I have acquired sufficient spoons. In the meantime, please sign this petition in support of Orashia Edwards, and if you can afford it, send some money in support of his legal costs.

Comments

[adjectivegail]

Interestingly, I have the same reaction but for different reasons. Basically I don't understand why the onus on asylum seekers is to prove sexual orientation, rather than to prove persecution. Not only is Jamaica a bloody scary place to be non-straight, but his name and photo have appeared in major Jamaican media outlets, outing him as bisexual. Biphobia/homophobia is based on perception of (and others' reactions to one's) sexual orientation (regardless of whether that perception is accurate or not), this guy's claim should be an open and shut case.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Maybe "they" think that it's easier to prove orientation than persecution? Or that it's easier to fake persecution than it is to fake orientation? I just don't know, the whole thing is so ridiculous.

Bloody Daily Mail readers and their fear of immigrants and asylum seekers :/