Lesbian refugees in transit: The making of authenticity and legitimacy in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey is a “transit” country, where refugees spend many years waiting before they have a chance to be resettled to a third country. During this liminal period of waiting, refugees have to pursue and legitimize their asylum claims with various state and parastatal asylum infrastructures, such as the Turkish asylum authority, the UNHCR, third countries’ embassies, and national, international, and diasporic NGOs and aid providers. This article examines how Iranian lesbian refugees navigate these legal, governmental, and humanitarian bodies that make disparate demands to evaluate the “authenticity” of their identities and the “legitimacy” of their claims. I argue that, during the period of waiting in Turkey, lesbian refugees learn to master specific forms of telling and performance demanded by states, NGOs, and communities in order to carve space for themselves in a system that systematically discredits their sexualities. By continually tailoring their narratives and performances to conform to certain “lesbian types” prioritized by these institutions, organizations, and communities, refugees not only make themselves “authentic,” “deserving,” and “legitimate” subjects within established tropes, but also transform how they imagine and embody their own and others’ sexualities and genders.