ABSTRACT
Over the last decade, sexual orientation has been widely included in the scope of international asylum law and practices as a reasonable ground for protection. Reification of gay and lesbian identities in the nexus of law and migration has been a contested subject among diverse disciplines as these identities are hard to fixate. The chapter discusses the case of an Iranian refugee who has sought asylum in Norway based on persecution for his sexual orientation. His claim was rejected in 2010, but he was granted asylum in 2013 after the Norwegian practice for assessing claims based on sexual orientation had been revised. Through this case, it explores how the change in asylum policy that occurred in 2012 can shed light on different constitutions of “homosexuality” by the Norwegian policy and practices of immigration. Furthermore, the chapter explores how the lived experiences of the informant are transformed, if at all, to create a legible narrative of persecution that would ensure his entitlement to protection in Norway. Based on this case, it shows how orientalism is reconstituted as a constitutive part of the new Nordic homonormativity, which claimants have to negotiate to become legible queer asylum seekers though the new regulations that are now in place.
