UK Denies Asylum to Man After Judge Claims He Was Pretending to be Gay

An alleged gay man who fled Bangladesh to escape persecution had his asylum application denied after a judge claimed he was “trying to pass” himself off as gay.

Monsur Ahmed Chowdhury, 38, arrived in the UK as a student in 2009 from Sylhet, a city in northeastern Bangladesh, after feeling unsafe to be his authentic self in his home country.

After years of applications, submitted evidence, and rejections, Monsur’s application was ultimately rejected by a judge in March 2018 during a First-Tier Tribunal, which handles immigration disputes, because the judge did not believe he was gay.

In a letter the judge ruled: ‘I conclude that the Appellant is not truly gay, but he is trying to pass himself off as gay.’

Describing being gay as a ‘lifestyle’, the judge told Monsur there is a ‘distinct lack of documentary material that might be suggestive that the Appellant was truly a gay man before he sought asylum’.

The judge also questioned why Monsur did not bring someone into the chamber who could ‘corroborate, in an important particular, how the Appellant has behaved as someone who is gay’.

Evidence that Monsur’s two witnesses did bring did ‘not direct itself, as I see it, to the central question as to really whether the Appellant is gay’.

His attendance at LGBTQ+ Pride events and nightclubs did not sway the judge, who dismissed a photograph of Monsur looking at same-sex pornography as being “staged.”

‘There is, quite clearly, a great desire on the part of the Appellant to try to present this picture that he is a gay man but, in my judgment, there is far too much manufacturing and posturing and that, in my judgment, undermines the fundamental credibility of the Appellant,’ the judge added.

Following the ruling, Monsur reapplied for asylum with the Home Office. However, his claim was rejected in June, with the decision based on the 2018 ruling.

If his appeal is unsuccessful, he could be forced to return to Bangladesh where LGBTQ+ rights are non-existent.