Marginalised and excluded, LGBTQI people are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, especially in those places where their identities are criminalised. Three years ago, GiveOut launched the world-first LGBTQI Climate Fund, to support LGBTQI organisations in the Global South and East to respond to the climate crisis, building knowledge, educating their communities, advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQI voices, and advancing justice and equity within responses to climate change, and contributing to the wider movement for climate justice.
“According to UNHCR, 10 million people are being displaced from their countries of origin, and within that number, we need to consider there are many intersections that we need to explore,” Mariano Ruiz, the President of Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil tells us when talking about the impacts of climate change.
Mariano is an LGBTQI activist from Argentina who has been exploring the relationship between forced displacement and LGBTQI communities since 2017. Mariano goes on to tell us “There’s an intersection between being displaced and LGBTQI communities. There are people being persecuted, being criminalised, being killed for just being who they are.” These people as Mariano explains are looking for a safe haven, a new country that will accept them and respect their human rights.
In 2022, Argentina launched a special humanitarian programme for people that are victims of climate change, and live in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, by which they can access a humanitarian visa and start a new life in Argentina.
To spread awareness about this new initiative, Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil produced an animation to educate members of the community on how they can access this programme. The animation also highlights the disproportionate affects climate change has on LGBTQI people, saying “LGBTQI people are mostly affected by these displacements due to violence, discrimination, and violations of their human rights due to not having their fundamental rights and identities recognised.”
This 2022 program in Argentina proposes to make resettlement easier, with countries around the world making it more difficult to do so. Mariano says “As many countries in the Global North are closing borders or not respecting the human right to seek asylum, we need to explore and set the basis for countries in the Global South to receive asylum seekers and refugees.”
Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil have seen many successes in this regard, helping LGBTQI people run away from hate, violence, and discrimination in their countries of origin, and resettle in a new country where their human rights are respected. They have established a referral process to help LGBTQI individuals apply for asylum and set up a service centre for LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees that arrived in Argentina.
Talking about the service centre, Mariano says “we provide different kinds of services, such as general settlement orientation, mental health support, health care support for people living with HIV, and trans people that need hormone replacement therapy. And Spanish courses for people that are arriving and need to learn the language in a safe space.” All services are provided in a safe space by LGBTQI people or allies that understand the intersection between forced displacement and LGBTQI people.
“We provide different kinds of services, such as general settlement orientation, mental health support, health care support for people living with HIV, and trans people that need hormone replacement therapy. And Spanish courses for people that are arriving and need to learn the language in a safe space.”
Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil have also successfully mapped 10 LGBTQI organisations operating in nine beneficiary countries. These organisations play a crucial role in providing direct support to LGBTIQ-displaced individuals, either along their migration route or in the context of internal displacement. The beneficiary countries include Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Cuba. Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil is now working with this network of organisations to better support displaced LGBTQI people across the America’s.
“Working with LGBTQI grassroots organisations that are in contact with LGBTQI displaced individuals is key, as well as establishing referrals between organisations. Government policies sometimes look good for the international arena, but without CSOs support are impossible to implement effectively. Organisations are now the ones responsible for distributing information about the humanitarian visa program, as well as, in case of having a potential beneficiary, guiding him through the process with our assistance.
But although they have seen many successes, they have also experienced setbacks. Mariano tells us that the humanitarian visa in Argentina only allows for a six-month window for individuals to apply after a natural disaster, which may not be sufficient for those affected to make the decision to relocate. In Haiti for example, it wasn’t until years after the country did not recover that people wanted to move. With the Argentine government’s current scheme, it does not allow for the space to understand the full scope of the situation.
Mariano also states that the Government is yet to think through ways to find funding for the allocations, rather the Government is simply offering them a visa but no funding or immigration support.
“Our meetings with government authorities have been instrumental in advancing the project. These discussions resulted in drafting a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementing the Humanitarian Visa program. This SOP outlines the eligibility criteria, application process, and considerations for potential beneficiaries.”
But through the organisation’s work with LGBTQI individuals displaced due to climate change, they have been afforded a seat at the table with the Government to discuss the shortcomings of the current scheme. “Our meetings with government authorities have been instrumental in advancing the project. These discussions resulted in drafting a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementing the Humanitarian Visa program. This SOP outlines the eligibility criteria, application process, and considerations for potential beneficiaries.”
Although there is much work to be done both in the region and around the world to protect LGBTQI people from climate change, organisations such as Derechos Humanos y Diversidad Asociación Civil are doing vital work in ensuring that LGBTQI affected by climate change can have the possibility of happily resettling in a new home.