Russian, Syrian couples seek sponsors

Olga and Natalia are a Russian lesbian couple who fled the country after receiving multiple death threats.

They are now living in Thailand and Rainbow Refugee is looking for sponsors who can help them find a permanent home in Canada.

The women, aged 32 and 39, moved in together in 2012. Natalia had her own dairy business and Olga was an illustrator and journalist, said a statement prepared by the United Nations Refugee agency, UNHCR, and Rainbow Refugee. In 2013, the two were planning to build a house and have a child.

That year, the Russian parliament unanimously passed an anti-gay propaganda law, which bans the dissemination among children of “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relationships,” according to Human Rights Watch.

“The law’s adoption ... coincided with the spread of violence and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and LGBT rights activists and a rise in homophobic hate speech by some Russian officials and public figures,” a 2014 report by Human Rights Watch found.

Olga and Natalia received photos of dead women by email from anonymous senders, particularly concerning given Natalia was severely beaten twice in the late 1990s, the second time with an iron rod.

“People began to hate us,” the pair wrote in the statement. “In the summer and winter of 2014, we received more threats with people writing on our car and door. We began to fear for our lives. We left Russia.”

In Syria, Ghaith and Ezeddin met on a dating website in 2010. The war gave them an opportunity to live together discretely, until last year when Ezeddin forgot to lock his iPad and his family saw evidence of their relationship. “His brother threatened to kill us,” Ghaith said in a statement prepared by Rainbow Refugee and UNHCR.

The pair fled to Turkey, where their housemates started harassing them after learning they were gay. They say they are no longer safe in Turkey after appearing in a television story about the plight of gay Syrians under ISIL.

Rainbow Refugee is also looking for a group to sponsor Ghaith and Ezeddin. The Sun is not publishing last names or photos for security reasons.

For more information, contact: sponsorship@rainbowrefugee.ca