2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) woman) to rent the apartment. I haven’t disclosed my identity to any landlords, so I won’t get into trouble with them. I try my best to hide it. 56 LGBTIQ+ stateless persons may encounter challenges in both the job market and the accommodation hunt due to the combination of lacking official papers that would be expected for a citizen and the prevalence of social stigma in some locations. On the more psychological level, the ‘UndocuQueer stress’ emanating from the cumulative effect of constantly feeling unsafe, and compounded security risks triggered by the double marginalised identity, also translate well to the experiences of the stateless LGBTIQ+ based on the selection of cases available to inform current understandings. 57 The experiences of fear, anxiety and rejection that have been recorded by researchers working with the UndocuQueer movement are reflected in the accounts of stateless LGBTIQ+ persons reproduced below. Firstly, in reporting the story of the transsexual stateless Bidun from Kuwait mentioned above, Human Rights Watch writes that: The combination of Ghadeer’s gender identity, statelessness, and poverty has amplified her vulnerability at the hands of the police and society at large. The dual stigma attached to being Bidun [stateless] and transsexual greatly increased her vulnerability to extortion and violence. … Since 2008 Ghadeer said that police had arrested her nine times for allegedly violating article 198 [of the Kuwaiti Penal Code] and detained her each time between four and twelve days. In 2009, a Kuwaiti court fined her 1000 KD ($3000) for ‘imitating the opposite sex’. 58 The mutually exacerbating security risks of being both LGBTIQ+ and stateless are likewise highlighted through the below narrative of Joseph in Lebanon, who was interviewed by the author for the purpose of this research. 59 Identifying as a stateless person who is also a LGBTIQ+ activist, Joseph was born to a Lebanese mother and Armenian father from Syria. When his parents got married, his father was ‘wanted’ by the Syrian government for not having completed his military service so when Joseph and his brother were born, they were only issued baptism certificates without the parents being able to complete the full birth registration process in Syria. Also, Lebanese women cannot pass on their citizenship to children due to gender discriminatory provisions within the nationality law. When his father was ultimately exempted from military service, Joseph's mother sought to regularise the children’s status by issuing the necessary paperwork from Syria. However, around this time the Syrian conflict began and the city of Aleppo (where Joseph should have been registered) was the site of major atrocities. After a difficult year of undocumented displacement in Lebanon, he managed to acquire a laissez-passer to facilitate his movement across the ubiquitous checkpoints on Lebanon’s roads. 56 57 58 59 Interview with Selena (Human Rights Watch, Beirut, 12 November 2018), quoted in ‘Don’t Punish Me for Who I Am’ Systemic Discrimination against Transgender Women in Lebanon (Report, Human Rights Watch 2019) <https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/03/dont-punishme-who-i-am/systemic-discrimination-against-transgender-women-lebanon>. Jesus Cisneros and Christian Bracho, ‘Undocuqueer Stress: How Safe are “Safe” Spaces, and for Whom?’ (2019) Journal of Homosexuality 1. They Hunt Us Down for Fun (n 55) 29; Kuwaiti Penal Code (Kuwait) Law No 16 of 1960, art 198. Interview with Joseph Poladoghly (Thomas McGee, 11 January 2020). Interviewee consented to have his name known. 73