ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of how the law reads the complexities and diversity among individuals' sexual and gender histories. It examines the legal framework in relation to asylum. The chapter focuses on to investigate the legal discourse and practice characterizing British tribunals in relation to sexuality- and gender-based asylum claims. During the 1990s asylum claims lodged by sexual minorities (mostly gay and lesbian people) started to be recognized within British tribunals. The main issue that sexual minority asylum claimants encountered in British courts up to 1999 was that LGBT people were not perceived as forming part of a "particular social group" category, and thus they did not enjoy protection under the Geneva Convention's grounds. Discretion, as applied by British courts in the cited instances, involved a process of silencing. The requirement of adopting discretion for sexuality-based claimants has been widely used by refugee-receiving countries' courts such as Canada, Australia, and the UK.
