Gay Rights: 31 LGBTQI Chechens Moved to Canada, Rainbow Railroad Reports
Photo Credits: Илья Астахов / (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Last April, we—the A4A community as a whole—managed to raise and donate together a total of $15,000 to Rainbow Railroad for their Chechen LGBTQI program (to read about A4A’s Chechen campaign, click here).
Yesterday, Rainbow Railroad has sent us an email to say thank you for our help and to inform us that a total of 31 Chechens (mostly men) had been moved to Canada ever since they launched their program. The process had not been easy. They related how they called on and talked to the Canadian government for support on the Chechen LGBTQI on April. And how, during the following month, Rainbow Railroad’s Executive Director Kimahli Powell went to Russia “under the cloak of secrecy” to meet a group of Chechen LGBTQI who had fled their country and had gone in hiding on various safe houses in Russia. Working with the Russian LGBT Network, Mr. Powell had “conducted in depth interviews” with said group and “heard instances of abuse, humiliation, and torture at the hands of the state.”
All of those men Mr. Powell interviewed had made it to Canada, the first of whom had arrived in Toronto on June 30. He had, since then, marched with Rainbow Railroad during the Pride Parade.
But of course the efforts do not stop there. While the men are “doing well,” and that they are “optimistic about their future,” at the end of the day they have been forced to flee from their homes. These young men who—according to Rainbow Railroad—do not speak English had to leave school or their employment and therefore, are in need of more support. They need a community. And it is because of these that Rainbow Railroad is calling on everyone who might be interested to learn how to be of help in their settlement process to email them here.
As we have mentioned in this article before, there are plenty of LGBTQI people worldwide who are in danger. They are facing persecution and violence in their own country simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, meanwhile the resources are scarce. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as Rainbow Railroad are in constant need of support in order to continue providing help to those who are seeking refuge. A4A members who wish to help them through Rainbow Railroad may do so here.
Rainbow Railroad is a Canadian NGO that “helps to save lives of LGBT people at risk of persecution worldwide.”
We, the A4A community, are happy and proud to have been able to help the Chechen LGBTQI in our own way.
Thoughts? Share it with us in the comments section below.
LGBTQI? what is I? how many more letters?
i love this.. happy people are moving to a better way of life. Also, please stop adding letters to LGBT. Q and I are not part of the community and next they’re going to add another ridiculous letter. Enough is enough with the liberal crap
meh….
Complete and utter ignorance at it’s finest. Commenting on a post of people moving for acceptance while excluding other disenfranchised peoples from a community which should have the scars from fighting this battle ourselves. Whether or not you ‘get it’, doesn’t matter. We should welcome all the letters, if it takes that to be accepted.
Furthermore, LGBT is an acronym for non-typical sexual orientations. Q for questioning and I for intersex fall into that category as well.
I bet you’re the kind of guy that puts ‘no fatties’ on his profile, aren’t you?
I 100% agree with you Andrew…
I actually had a comment for him but deleted it, it was too intense…
What does the Q I stand for?
doesn’t LGBT WORK?
Queer or questioning and Intersex…
Does the “Rainbow Railroad” assist those who are STILL being persecuted, imprisoned and murdered for living their truth in Uganda, Cameroon, and Nigeria or no?
(asking for a friend)
Hmmm, I couldn’t say, check on their website they always put great update of their work. Of course their work depends on donation as well…most of the “employees” work for free…
It wasn’t until A4A began posting about gay Chechnyans that I knew there was a Rainbow Railroad. Prior to that, it looked as if gay Africans were (and still are) left to their own devices. This feels imbalanced. Am I incorrect in my feeling?
I think Rainbow Railroad also helps Africa, check out their website…
For a small organism, they are pretty active!
To that end, can we expect to see A4A post updates of African gay refugees and where they have been placed by the Rainbow Railroad too?
A4A receives rainbow railroad newsletter and we try to keep you posted on every information they send us.
They cannot give us precise information about one group or another. Even when we made a donation, they could not certify that the money would go towards one group in particular, but to their entire organization. So the money you donated probably helped LGBT people from around the world.
Now that these man are safe, can you post pics of them.
including Q and I is a lot more inclusive and open that decrying that as an ignoramus then demanding equality and respect. I don’t think one can be uber-conservative a/k/a ignorant and gay. It doesn’t work that way except among the affluent haute-fage.