LGBTQI+ and Nowhere to Go: The Makings of a Refugee Population Without Refuge

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has exposed deep economic and social fissures across societies. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people are but one community whose marginalization, through this exposure, has been exacerbated. Given a history of criminalization on the African continent, in particular, LGBTQI+ people have come into stark visibility as citizens and, increasingly significantly, asylum seekers and refugees while contending with their absence from any form of pandemic planning. In this paper, I suggest that not only are we seeing a rise, linked to COVID-19, in insecurity experienced by African-based LGBTQI+ people but that this will have long term effects, one of which will be increased migration. Drawing on reports and empirical studies tracking the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQI+ people and research and theory from the fields of disaster studies and queer African studies, in this paper, I approach COVID-19 as a disaster event. Applying a queer lens to disaster, I argue that if we read the historical stigmatization and criminalization of these communities as having led to the emergence of a growing LGBTQI+ refugee population, both on and off the African continent, then the outcome of a disaster that exacerbates preexisting vulnerabilities can only mean the inevitable swelling of this populations numbers. However, as states globally use COVID-19 to further secure borders, curtailing asylum and resettlement, it is increasingly likely that these refugees will remain on the African continent. If that is the case, it would seem that ongoing criminalization may no longer be feasible.