Biscuit shares panel with asylum seeker Aderonke Apata
Last weekend, Biscuit’s editor-in-chief Lottie was privileged enough to join a panel of inspiring lesbian and bisexual woman at the Lesbian and Gay Foundation’s Sugar and Spice event. One of these was Nigerian Aderonke Apata, who is fighting to stay in the country in light of a Home Office ruling that she cannot be a lesbian because she has children and has been in heterosexual relationships.
Apata appeared in the High Court last week to challenge the Home Office’s decision to refuse her asylum. During the hearing, Home Secretary barrister Andrew Bird insisted that she was simply someone who had “indulged in same-sex activity”. “You can’t be a heterosexual one day and a lesbian the next day,” he asserted.”Just as you can’t change your race.” Apata was told that the results of her appeal would arrive at the end of the month. Outside the court, Apata fell into the arms of her wife-to-be, Happiness Agboro.
Biscuit’s Lottie Dingle joins Aderonke Apata on a Lesbian and Gay Foundation panel
Apata’s story is a harrowing one. When Apata’s family found out she had a female partner, they dragged her to a Sharia court to be stoned for adultery. A “legal technicality” gave her the time she needed to flee to England. After she left, her female partner of 20 years was killed by vigilantes.
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Asylum Denied: The Grim Irony of Proof of Sexuality Edicts
If a documented history of relationships with more than one gender does not equal ‘bi’, what can we do? Holly Matthies tackles the thorny issue of ‘proving’ your sexuality.
My first exposure to the news of Ray Fuller’s failed asylum case was a tweet from Bisexual Index. “Horrifying,” it said. “Not bisexual because he’s attracted to women, asylum judge rules.”
My first response was to write When we say “Biphobia kills,” it’s not hyperbole. People don’t know what bisexuality is, and that harms bisexuals. It’s not the only way biphobia can be deadly, of course, but for anyone to be deported… Continue reading →