Have you ever wondered what is it like to live in a country where expressing your sexuality is a crime? To not be able to choose whom to love, what to be, and how to live? To be yourself at the risk of being imprisoned or even killed? Those who identify as LGBTQ people and come from oppressive countries know how it feels to live in a society that doesn’t tolerate them. Seeking safety, they run to new places, where they can settle down and live a peaceful life.
Serena, Khalid, Farhad, Muhizi, Nour, and Ansumana are six LGBTQ refugees who came to Sweden to save themselves from the tyrannical governments that criminalize who they are. But if they want to stay in the European country, these people have to overcome another challenge: An asylum process that seems to put more obstacles in their way to building a quiet life rather than helping them end this nightmare they have been experiencing for a while now. To be eligible for asylum in Sweden, LGBTQ refugees are asked to prove to the authorities that they are, in fact, part of this community; they are asked to reveal something they have been hiding for their entire lives.
West Pride, an LGBTQ cultural festival in Gothenburg, wants to make the authorities review the entire process and, in partnership with ad agency AKQA, kicked off the “Ambassadors of Pride” campaign, an initiative that aligns with the non-profit’s festival (which took place 13 — 19 June) and which also backs up the organization’s petition to “Stop dubious credibility assessments of LGBTQ asylum seekers in Sweden.”
The campaign features the life stories of these six individuals, whose identities are being kept secret. What is visible though, are their silhouettes contoured in black and their faces blurred by the equal sign. Under anonymity, the participants — whose names are not real — reveal the horrors and the terrible situations they went through while back at home and their experiences making it to Sweden and its difficult asylum process.
“This year, the plight of LGBTQ+ refugees was one of those wrongs we wanted to make right together. And if we cannot just bring attention to a broken asylum system, but have a tangible life-changing solution as part of the idea, we could create a meaningful spark of change,” David Wedebrant, Managing Director at AKQA told Clear Channel, Norway’s largest player in OOH advertising, a proud supporter of Pride throughout Scandinavia, and partner of West Pride.
According to Wedebrant, the key to breathing life into this campaign was to keep the individuals anonymous, “as they are risking everything to participate. The subject is dark and serious enough, so in order to still present them proudly; their identities are hidden with a design that takes inspiration from the equal sign in the West Pride logo. Paired with the colors of the rainbow, it also illustrates how all love is equal; but also, that not everyone is free to show it.”
Via this campaign, these six individuals are being given a serious role within the organization: As Ambassadors of Pride and Honorary Members of West Pride, their job is to make it harder for the Swedish Migration Agency to continue with this asylum procedure LGBTQ refugees have to endure in order to start a new chapter in their lives and not risk being deported back to their home countries.
Emma Gunterberg Sachs, General Manager of West Pride, said: “Letting an arbitrary process decide if LGBTQ refugees are approved asylum or not is inhumane. Far too many are wrongly sent back to a lifetime of persecution, imprisonment, or death. We need to stop this now.”
The campaign is supported by a dedicated platform, where the stories of these individuals are hosted. Additionally, users who want to join the cause, support West Pride in achieving its goal, and help LGBTQ refugees stay safe can do so by signing the organization’s petition.
Credits:
Client: West Pride
Agency: AKQA