Are you also ashamed of the homophobic or xenophobic declaration of the day released by Italian politicians? Well, if this can console you (probably it won’t), Italy is not the only European country that has recently been rediscovering itself as intolerant.
Asylum absurdly denied
In recent months, in Austria is causing much sensation the fact that, as in other European countries, more and more visas for political asylum are being denied, in particular those aimed at people persecuted because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
An example is the case of an 18-year-old boy from Afghanistan (sexual minorities in Afghanistan are heavily socially discriminated, and consenting homosexual sex is punished with 15 years in prison, as an extra-marital intercourse), whose application has been rejected because according to the authorities his behaviour and his way of walking and dressing were not effeminate as a stereotypical homosexual boy.
According to the Viennese association Queer Base, which provides assistance to more than 400 LGBTQIA refugees in Austria, the boy realised that he was homosexual around 12 years of age, when he was living in Afghanistan, and had immigrated to Austria when he was still a minor.
In addition to not looking gay enough, the decision refers also to the fact that the asylum seeker got into fights with fellow migrants, but the aim was not to highlight that he was dangerous or aggressive, but to show instead his nonhomosexuality: in fact according to the authorities a homosexual boy is expected to be rather sociable and docile, so aggressiveness and not having many friends, according to this twisted thought that proceeds by hard to die stereotypes, would be symptoms of heterosexuality!
Rainbows and porn pictures
The case of the Afghan boy is not isolated at all, this June Navid Jafartash, a homosexual Iranian refugee, said in an interview on Austrian television that his asylum application had initially been refused (although he lived with his Austrian partner) because he did not seem convincing enough in explaining the meanings of the rainbow flag’s colours (a symbol which, incidentally, is not shown off by LGBTQIA Iranians because being identified as belonging to a sexual minority can mean risking their lives).
The peak of the absurdity, however, was reached when, by examining the case of another asylum seeker, for Austrian authorities the absence of homosexual pornographic material in the applicant’s phone is to be considered as proof of his non belonging to a persecuted sexual minority. Obviously the idea that, as for heterosexual people, pornographic material may not be appreciated and/or downloaded on phones by some bi- or homosexual people is not contemplated at all.
It therefore meant that now in Austria authorities rely on the more or less effeminate appearance or the presence or absence of pornographic material in someone’s phone to assess whether to accept or refuse an asylum application and therefore whether to save a life or expose it to the risks led by repatriation.
Asylum seekers’ fears
According to Patrick Dörr, who runs Queer Refuges (a German state-sponsored program for LGBTQIA refugees coming to Germany), the typical fear of the Austrian authorities, namely that an asylum seeker falsely declares themselves as gay to get the refugee status, is unfounded because often the opposite is the case, since LGBTQIA asylum seekers leave often their sexual identity out because of the shame and social stigma which they grew up with, not knowing that they deserve greater protection due to their diversity.
Marty Huber, a founder of Queer Base, affirms that in addition to the difficulties in demonstrating their homosexuality or bisexuality, LGBTQIA refugees often have to deal with the discrimination suffered in the asylum centres after their outing, and therefore they are often hesitant to come out as queer.
Gay marriages as lagers?
Austria is also demonstrating how the institutionalisation of same-sex marriage is not a final goal that completely annul a country’s homophobia, because despite the fact that the green light for same-sex marriages had already been given in November 2017, Austrian society has repeatedly shown itself to be hateful towards homosexual people.
For example, the former bishop of Salzburg (now retired), known for having supported pseudo-scientific
conversion therapy for gay people, took position against the blessings of homosexual couples in some German dioceses, comparing them the blessings of the Nazi death camps.
The railways’ advertising
Another controversy has been raised by the Österreichische BundesBahnen (Austrian Federal Railways; ÖBB), whose trains also run on the railways of Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and also the Italian Triveneto.
The Austrian public company has posted billboards in numerous railway stations in favour of the new “VorteilsCard Family”, i.e. a discounted pass for mothers, fathers or partners travelling with children; this has already existed since 2013, but it has now been extended also to couples of friends. Among the different pictures of the billboards, however, one, which the ÖBB had chosen to express diversity and equality, was not really welcomed by the public, namely the one in which two smiling men are portrayed holding a child in their arms. What made the reaction even worse was that one of the two men is dark-skinned.
As expected, users of various social networks have certainly not hesitated in insulting the couple portrayed in the pictures, both because of their sexual orientation and the ethnicity of one of the two men.
But the problem arose when these keyboard warrior-like jokes came also from above, and more precisely from Manfred Pühringer, a municipal councillor of Linz and member of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria; FPÖ), an originally conservative-liberal party but now a more populist right-wing and increasingly nationalist one, currently in the coalition government with the more moderate Österreichische Volkspartei (Austrian People’s Party; ÖVP).
“Fags, and one is also a nigger”
So Pühringer shared the image of the couple on his Facebook profile, commenting scornfully with a “It’s so cute, isn’t it?” Unleashing a further series of insults from the Austrian politician’s contacts, including those of Bruno Weber (FPÖ’s city councillor of Amstetten), who announced that he will no longer renew its VorteilsCard and will no longer travel with ÖBB, choosing the private company Westbahn instead (ignoring that the Westbahn line is owned by the ÖBB) commenting also: “This is not normal! Two presumed faggots with a child, and in addition one of them is also a nigger, it scares me…”
Fortunately, FPÖ spokesman Lukas Brucker distanced the party from these statements and Weber later publicly apologised for the strongly offensive language he used, but he made also clear that as a conservative and family man, the image of traditional family is just important to him. As compensation, he also announced a donation of € 1500 for a non-profit association that helps children in need. Will these excuses be enough to prevent Austria from sliding further and further towards xenophobic and homophobic positions?
Giovanni Gottardo
©2018 Il Grande Colibrì
photo: Google
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