Danni Askini Seeks Asylum in Sweden

[icymist]

Danni Askini slept on the floor of a Stockholm apartment during her first four weeks of exile from Seattle. Sweden’s summer sunlight cast an unwaning glow on boxes strewn about the spacious rooms, illuminating the emptiness of her temporary quarters. The vacationing owners had allowed her to stay at their place before they moved to another home; a gracious gesture that Askini, a transgender activist and the former Executive Director of Seattle’s Gender Justice League, had come to rely on as she attempted to get back on her feet in a new country.

Yet the isolation was deafening. Askini, 36, had deactivated her social media accounts and stopped using her cell phone out of fear that her location would be tracked or that she would face further harassment. Her limited Swedish proficiency and inability to open a bank account made basic purchases and seeking legal and social services a challenge. The only glimpses of the outside world came every other day when she would make phone calls to her mother, husband, and best friend in Seattle.

“I was trying to not spiral into despair,” Askini said as she reflected on her first few weeks in Sweden. But recurring thoughts of abandonment, frustration and alienation kept her up at night. Accustomed to elevating the marginalized voices of others, the tables had turned on Askini. In Seattle, Askini had helped spearhead a lawsuit challenging Trump’s transgender military ban, along with founding a nonprofit. She also ran for a state House seat in the 43rd district in 2016 before dropping out of the race to pivot her focus to fighting against I-1515, an initiative designed to limit access to bathrooms for transgender people. Now she was the one seeking help. “I feel erased,” she said, deflated.

Her escape from Seattle began in July, following the doxing of her family members, as well as death and sexual violence threats from white nationalist and neo-nazi groups that escalated between May to late June, according to a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights letter that detailed the allegations of her ordeal. The letter that redacted the names of the alleged groups stated that Askini received over 12,000 hate emails over a two-week period. (Seattle Weekly has chosen not to describe the threats in detail so as not to jeopardize Askini’s asylum claim.)

http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/danni-askini-seeks-asylum-in-sweden/?fbclid=IwAR2qha9OaaWHuDsxa-Tfy8R7AGSmf4PwXusXXq4-ew0WJcsWC4Jw94Z6AjA

[icymist]

1. TLC concerned by reports of trans activist Danni Askini's treatment by U.S. State Department

Transgender Law Center is concerned by reports that Danni Askini, a transgender woman, U.S. citizen, and prominent community advocate from Washington State, has been denied a passport renewal by the U.S. State Department. Danni is currently in Sweden and if forced to return to the United States, Danni worries that the U.S. would place her in immigration detention if she attempted to return.

TLC has long called on the U.S. to end its abusive practice of placing transgender women in immigration detention centers. United States immigration detention centers have repeatedly shown they are incapable of holding transgender women safely, instead subjecting them to intense abuse, assault, and human rights violations that have been fatal in some cases. Numerous studies demonstrate that LGBT people in detention are at heightened risk of verbal and physical abuse, harassment, sexual violence, and inadequate access to necessary medical care.[1] Although LGBT people make up less than one percent of people in immigration detention each year, they account for 12 percent of reported victims of sexual abuse and assault in ICE detention.[2] Transgender people specifically, are at an increased risk of sexual abuse in detention facilities.[3] Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses solitary confinement as a method to “protect” LGBT people in detention from abuse, however, this is inappropriate and causes further harm. Prolonged solitary confinement is demonstrated to cause irreparable psychological harm and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has reported on ICE’s use of solitary confinement for LGBT immigrants in detention as a violation of U.S. treaty obligations.[4]

https://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/14405?fbclid=IwAR1RUkpcCYK_UX7C82TF3se9ie7zGe4XXSdhV8qDUQbb_pUg4FVALDek6pM