‘Rainbow Statelessness’ I'm currently in a relationship with a human rights student who lives in Paris. I had a love story with this man, and it was all too great, up until he had to leave. Those airport trips are the nastiest, especially when you want to say goodbye to the person that you love, but you can't show too much affection. Being stateless and queer makes it a whole different experience: there's a constant fear, persistent anxiety. Once, I was held at a checkpoint and my phone was illegally checked. They found a photo of me and my partner. The matter was exacerbated with my being stateless. Too many things for a bored officer who wants someone to prey on. The thing is, I not only have to live with sequestered rights as a human being, I also have to compromise my sexuality, my physical presence, it goes beyond paperwork. It goes without saying that being stateless can also make any problem I encounter due to my sexual orientation and gender identity much worse. Imagine if one day I am taken to Hobeish police station because of an ‘act of public immorality’ 60 and I do not have enough documents to get myself a defence. … You cannot be yourself. You can only compromise to a certain degree. There are many ways the impact takes its full effect, but I'm not sure I'll be able to explain it at the moment. It needs a clear mind. Joseph’s narrative here adds to the evidence that statelessness and SOGIESC having intersectional impacts upon the lived experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals affected by statelessness. The remaining part of this article focuses on establishing a body of cases where SOGIESC and associated discrimination may play a causal role in putting LGBTIQ+ persons or their children at risk of statelessness. SOGIESC-DISCRIMINATION AS A CAUSE OF STATELESSNESS The possibility of becoming, or being made, stateless as the result of SOGIESC has not been adequately examined in academic literature. Perhaps this is because affected individuals are geographically dispersed and presumed to be in relatively small numbers compared with other causes of statelessness. However, based on a review of existing literature (mostly media reports) and documentation of individual cases (largely identified through contact with actors working on statelessness and/or LGBTIQ+ rights), it is apparent that discrimination against LGBTIQ+ individuals resulting in (risks of) statelessness can take many forms. In the main part, the risks of becoming stateless are exacerbated by regimes of nonrecognition of LGBTIQ+ realities, legislative disparity and prevalent structures/cultures of discrimination. The possibility of statelessness as the result of sex/gender transitions abroad or for children born to ‘rainbow families’ will be explored in further sections of this article. Below is a presentation of situations in which LGBTIQ+ individuals might be rendered stateless through SOGIESC-discrimination, or through specifically homo-, trans- or intersex-phobic forms of discrimination. The various circumstances surveyed in the accompanying case studies suggest that LGBTIQ+ persons may be vulnerable to arbitrary deprivation of citizenship at all stages of life. 60 Hobeish police station traditionally handles all ‘morality/adab’-related arrests in Beirut and is notorious for harsh treatment towards LGBTIQ+ individuals. See ‘It’s Part of the Job’: IllTreatment and Torture of Vulnerable Groups in Lebanese Police Stations (Report, Human Rights Watch 2013): <https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/lebanon0613_forUpload_1.pdf>. 74