Status: 03/25/2023 11:12 a.m
Six gay refugees live in a shared flat in Schwäbisch Gmünd. It offers protection and creates self-confidence. Traumatic experiences in their home countries connect them.
Ali is sitting in his room in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Flowers on the windowsill, a sofa, a table. Ali, who is from Tunisia, is safe after years of persecution and fear. But the tension is still clearly noticeable when he talks about his experiences as a gay man in his home country. His feet tapping nervously, his voice almost a whisper, as he recounts how he was raped and even filmed to humiliate him.
“That was the moment for me when I knew I couldn’t stay in Tunisia,” he says. “I’d been to Europe a few times before, always for just a few weeks, but after this experience I knew that’s enough, I can’t live like this anymore.”
Murdered by the mob
Ali is 27 years old. A young man, neat haircut. The rainbow flag, the symbol of the LGBTIQ community, is emblazoned on his cell phone case. Here he can show it openly, because here, in a shared apartment in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Ali lives with other gay refugees. Six men have found refuge here, from Nigeria, Kurdistan or Cameroon, i.e. from countries where they were humiliated or persecuted as gay – or even had to fear for their lives.
Just like Elvis. He has been living in the gay flat share for twelve days, but his escape began in 2018, says the political scientist: “I was studying abroad when my then boyfriend in Cameroon was tracked down by a mob and burned alive. because he was openly gay. The judge issued an arrest warrant for me at the time. I haven’t returned to Cameroon since then.”
If he did it anyway, says Elvis, he would be arrested immediately, because in Cameroon homosexuality is punished with up to five years in prison. The murderers of his friend, on the other hand, would not have to fear any punishment, Elvis is sure of that: “The constitution disapproves of homosexuality. That’s why vigilante justice is looked away. The police will not arrest anyone who kills a gay man.”
gay solidarity
The fact that many here in the gay refugee flat share have had similar experiences, that they can exchange ideas and help get over their traumas together, often gives the men their first experience of a kind of gay solidarity.
This is particularly important to Joschi Moser, one of the initiators of the “Rainbow Refugees”. He has been involved in AIDS aid for decades. He calls the refugee flat share his “late life’s work”. “In the countries from which our refugees come, everyone had to make sure that they simply survived. And here we have the opportunity to practice solidarity. This means that they learn one thing above all, namely that they become self-confident gay men that they can lead a self-confident, independent life.”
There is no turning back
In order for this to succeed, there are strict rules in the shared apartment. Learning German is compulsory. Even the slightest offence, even a minor shoplifting, will result in eviction. And: the daily news is watched together every day. “The men hear the purest High German there is,” says Joschi Moser with a smile.
Moser knows that his concept is successful and motivates men to build a life here. Also because there is no going back for them. “Our refugees don’t have the slightest prospect of returning to their countries of origin, because nothing will change politically or socially for many years, we don’t have to fool ourselves. And that means they need a solid perspective to stay.”
However, this is not always guaranteed by politics. Ali follows the news every day to see what’s going on in his home country, Tunisia. The change of power, the new, maybe more liberal government. However, he does not hope that he will be able to return there at some point. “Homophobia is too deeply rooted in the mentality of society as a whole,” said the Tunisian. “It takes a lot of time to change that, maybe ten, 20 years.”
fear of homophobia
Elvis from Cameroon is also planning a long-term life in Germany. He feels safe here – but one thing also worries him: “Germany is becoming a very diverse society, a society with people from different cultures, from the Caucasus, from Africa, from the Middle East. And with these people they are moving again homophobic tendencies in German society. That worries me, even though I know that as a gay person I am protected here by the police and the government.”
Refugees who are afraid of other refugees? Yes, says Joschi Moser, that is definitely an issue. “We have heard many reports of sexual assaults in state initial reception centers and those responsible there are often quite helpless. On the other hand, our refugees are so traumatized by experiences with the police in their countries of origin that they do not seek help there either.”
That’s why he regularly visits police stations with the residents of the gay shared flat to build trust and to show that there is definitely help for them here in Germany. And maybe even a new life without fear.