ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how fear mobilises people to flee persecution and outlines how pro- lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) cases recognise such fear to determine an asylum claim. Fear is central to the grant of asylum. Under international law, refugees are entitled to seek asylum if they have “a well-founded fear of persecution” owing to race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group. The chapter discusses judicial and administrative enactments of fear to show how pro-LGBT refugee cases are shaped by temporal and spatial logics indexed to an anticipated injury to the integrity of refugee adjudication. The shift from relying on discretion logic marked a progressive turning point in refugee law by making space to protect LGBT people who sought asylum. Pro-LGBT refugee cases from the Court of Justice of the European Union push back against some of the intrusive questions and stereotypes used to determine LGBT asylum claims.
