Austria recently deported gay soccer coach Cletus B back to Nigeria where he may face execution for being gay, because that’s how they do things there. The police arrested the coach along with 14 of his players when they raided the anti-racist football team “FC Sans Papiers” (“without papers”) using over 100 officers. Heinz Leitner with LGBT Asylum News blames racist, right-wing laws and an ineffectual gay community while the Austrian Green Party claims the government severely mishandled the case. Maybe it’s, uh, both?
kicked out
Will Austria’s Deportation of a Gay Nigerian Soccer Coach Seal His Death?
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Zed
if you were seeking asylum for being gay….maybe you’d go somewhere that is fond on the gays????
TommyOC
@Zed: Any suggestions? Last I checked, there are plenty of cases in the Western world of gay asylum seekers being turned away.
Dame Helga von Ornstein
There seems to be a lot of detail missing in this report. Ok, Austria is not very fond of gays and do, as every other part of the planet have more than it’s fair share of racists. No one is denying that.
But what reason did the police have that warranted 100 officers to participate in a raid? No papers? Somehow I feel there is more to this than the coach being gay.
Hyhybt
What do the second and third banners in the photo mean? The one on the left I understand.
mike
@Hyhybt: I imagine that they mean “no deporatations” and “no flying spaghetti monsters.”
Bill Perdue
Nigeria is home to rabidly anit-LGBT episcopal archbishop akinola who says “I cannot think of how a man in his senses would be having a sexual relationship with another man. Even in the world of animals, dogs, cows, lions, we don’t hear of such things.”
Nigeria is also home to anti-GLBT islamist jihadists. On August 10th, 2007 the BBC reported that “Eighteen men have been remanded in prison following their arrest for alleged sodomy in northern Nigeria, the state-owned news agency, Nan, reports.
The men were arrested in a hotel in north-eastern Bauchi State, which is governed by the Islamic Sharia law.
The Sharia punishment for sodomy is death by stoning.”
Our Brother Cletus is in grave danger.
paulcanning
@Dame Helga von Ornstein:
From the report:
Der Standard columnist Irene Brickner told LGBT Asylum News:
The social background is a far right political atmosphere in Austria concerning asylum matters. Black men, and especially Nigerians and people from other West African states. Due to the fact that drug dealing is a problem amongst them, every Nigerian man is suspected by the police and other authorities to be a drug dealer: a very negative start for asylum applications – and an extreme example of ethnic profiling.
Kieran
Let’s be realistic. If word got out that saying you’re gay is all that’s needed to gain political asylum….Austria would soon be swarming with Nigerians waving rainbow flags. Instead of blaming Austria, how about targeting African homophobia that threaten gay people with DEATH.
Bill Perdue
@Kieran: Let’s be realistic – the blame for homohating in Africaand elsewhere has one source – christer bigot groups in the US and Europe.
They brought bigotry as part of a package that includes theft of natural resources, racism, and neo-colonialism.
If you want an illustration of that get ahold of a wonderful film called “Proteus”, Strand Releasing, 2004,that details the vile concoction of racism, homohating and land theft comprise the sum of European relations with most of Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific peoples.
As Desmond Tutu explained “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
The EU and the US should adopt a long-term open asylum policy for GLBT folks in danger of torture and murder. It only seems fair since the EU and the US are directly responsible for putting our brothers and sisters in danger.
@Dame Helga von Ornstein: Have you ever known police not to overreact, especially when it comes to dark skinned or gay folks?