I communicate fairly regularly with queer refugees at the UN's Kakuma camp in Kenya. Many of them barely escaped their local communities with their lives. Now, the conditions at the camp are so poor that merely staying alive is all many of them can hope for.

There's no going home, there's nothing for them at Kakuma, and hope for the future is dim at best.

I interviewed a young man about a year ago who fled to Kakuma after being beaten twice in prison for being gay. At Kakuma, he was beaten and stabbed for being gay.

You'd think a young man like him would be at the top of UN lists for help. In fact, he couldn't even get on a list. Officials at the camp wouldn't help him apply for third-country relocation.

A queer woman's group operating out of North Africa eventually smuggled him out of the camp to a safe house. But whether or not he'll ever find refuge in a relatively safe nation is very much up in the air. He has to put his life at risk just to try.

And this is where we are right now.

Thank you so much for your story!