Only bi because of jail time, tribunal rules

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • May 9, 2007 - 14:30

Mr Humayun claims that as a Christian and bisexual he would be persecuted by his Muslim family if he was returned to Pakistan.

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A Pakistani man has been refused asylum in Australia and told that he was only bisexual because he was in a detention centre.

Giles Short, the Refugee Review Tribunal member who made the decision, is quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as concluding:

"The applicant was not in fact bisexual … [his relationship] was simply the product of the situation where only partners of the same sex were available and said nothing about his sexual orientation."

Mr Short belittled Ali Humayun's assertion that he and his boyfriend were considering marriage, saying it was a contrived attempt to make their relationship more serious.

His partner has been granted asylum and released from the detention centre.

Mr Humayun claims that as a Christian and bisexual he would be persecuted by his Muslim family if he was returned to Pakistan.

"I'm worried for my life if I am deported home," he said, according to the Herald.

"The men in my family, they are really fundamentalist types. Muslims. My lifestyle is totally in contrast to what they believe."

The Greens senator Kerry Nettle has spoken out against the conditions Mr Humayun is being held in.

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