The issue of intersectionality is very important in this context. For example, going back to the business of the claimant, they have a terrible choice to make. If they are known to be gay in their community—for example, if they're out in the refugee camps or in their cultural community after they come to Canada—then they will be known as out in that community and they will be severed from their community of origin, a Hobson's choice if ever there was one.
In understanding why queers might not tell anybody, it's crucial to understand the particular cultural and religious history. I have had an Indo-Canadian client say to me that I should sponsor his Indian partner and his Indian partner's wife, because in India it is standard practice for gay men to marry and to have relationships on the side with the knowledge of their partners. I have had a lesbian from China tell me I am the only person she has ever told in her life—she is sponsoring her lesbian partner—and the only person she will ever tell. The difficulty with the intersectionality is that if you're the queer person, you end up in a very, very small and lonely place.
In terms of dealing with that intersectionality, the most important thing the board can do—in particular in its training—is to be trained about intersectionality. That's number one. Number two—and to my mind this is absolutely crucial—is that board members should literally make the thought leap that I invited you to make today, and that is to try to think beyond your experience, beyond your point of view, and from the point of view of the claimant for a period of time.
That's a very difficult thing to do, but it is actually the only way to understand some of the actions of the claimants you see and evaluate. If you think of sexual orientation or gender identity as something that is fixed, then the fact that somebody was apparently straight in their home country and is now saying they're gay is problematic. If you understand why people make those choices, the problematic nature of it goes away.
In answer, training about how intersectionality works, and the board taking a real effort to look at things from the point of view of the claimant in that training and in their work are huge steps forward.