FairPlanet.Support
| tags: | #LGBTQ Rights, #LGBTQ refugees, #asylum seekers, #human rights |
|---|---|
| located: | Canada, United Kingdom |
| by: | Yair Oded |
Despite some improvements occurring in LGBTQ visibility and rights around the world, being LGBTQ is still legallly criminalized in over 70 countries. In 8 of those countries, being LGBTQ or engaging in same-sex sexual activity is punishable by death.
From murderous purges in Chechnya to executions in Saudi Arabia and violent attacks and torture in Africa and the Caribbean- queer people’s lives are still at risk in large swaths of the planet.
Modeled after the monumental Underground Railroad, the Rainbow Railroad (RR) is a nonprofit organization working tirelessly to help LGBTQ people escape persecution in their home countries and bring them to safety in North America and Europe.
Relying on a global network of volunteers and private donations, RR provide support, guidance, and information to LGBTQ people who are in hiding and wish to escape their home country, supply financial means for travel to safety in the West, and assist them through the assimilation and asylum process in their host countries.
At any given moment, the organization works on an average of 30-50 cases of LGBTQ people seeking to flee danger in their countries of origin. Under the current climate, the numbers steadily rise.
Visit their website to learn about their work and get involved.
You may donate and help cover the cost of securing an LGBTQ person’s path to freedom (which averages at roughly $10,000), host a fundraising event, partake in sponsoring cases of newly arrived LGBTQ refugees in Canada, or volunteer with RR.
Image credit: Rainbow Railroad website.
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