A Continued Collaboration for LGBTIQ Rights
"Since I've been here, Queer Base has given me courage, support and strength and enabled me to see diversity. Now I can believe in myself and accept who I am: a young and proud gay man." – Fahad from Uganda
Here at waterdrop®, Pride Month holds a special place in our hearts as we come together to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community. This year, we are thrilled to continue our collaboration with Queer Base, a remarkable Vienna-based organization committed to assisting individuals who have had to flee their home country because of their sexuality or gender identity. In celebration of our continued partnership, we had an interview with Queer Base to learn more about how our cooperation is benefiting their various projects and what’s coming our way!
So firstly, who is Queer Base and what do they do?
Founded in 2016, Queer Base is an organization that supports people who are persecuted in their countries of origin due to their sexuality or gender identity. Queer Base's services include coming out counseling and community work as well as comprehensive legal advice. Together with its cooperation partners, Queer Base also offers safe accommodation for LGBTIQ people in the asylum process. Queer Base also offers training for people who work in the asylum sector, whether in accommodation, at counseling centers or judges at the Federal Administrative Court. At a national and regional level, Queer Base is working on structural improvements for queer refugees, currently with a focus on training for interpreters.
In 2023 alone, 100 LGBTIQ refugees were transferred to safe housing in Vienna and 129 Queer Base clients successfully completed their asylum procedure.
We are thrilled to be working with Queer Base for the 3rd year in a row! How do you feel about our collaboration so far?
Likewise! We were especially pleased that the first two years of our cooperation with Conchita Wurst—an Austrian icon of the LGBTQIA+ community—got off to a good start. Standing up for human rights is something close to our hearts, and of course it helps when companies not only design their logos in rainbow colors in June, but also go on to support projects. Organizations like ours fight for the community all year round, which is why long-term partnerships are essential. Due to the global shift to the right, it is now even more important that we all send out strong signals that uphold our values of democracy, care and togetherness. We all need to take a clear position to ensure no one gets left behind.
What projects did you manage to support with our donations last year? Tell us more!
A large part of the donation goes directly to the legal advice that we provide to queer refugees free of charge. In 2023, we managed to successfully conclude 129 cases, most of which were granted asylum almost immediately. This gives the refugees their lives back, which they would otherwise have to spend in fear and uncertainty.
Another part of the donation went towards the video production of ‘On the Tip of the Tongue - Es liegt mir auf der Zunge’. We want to generate joy and critical discourse with ‘Queer Joy’ and workshops and videos are an important part of this.
Are there any particular projects Queer Base is planning to support with our donations this year?
Providing legal advice is still of utmost importance to us. We are still dependent on donations in this area, which is why we will use a large part of our funds for this purpose. We are also planning further activities in the areas of workshops and participation.
We had the pleasure of welcoming you and your community to our waterdrop® store (just in time for the Pride Parade!) Could you give us some insights on how it was for you?
For us, it is particularly important to share the stories and hurdles that queer refugees experience in Austria so we can bring people closer together. In a world that is currently experiencing so much conflict, we need these moments of listening and also concrete opportunities to make the world a better place.
Can you give us an outlook on what will happen next?
At the moment, there are a lot of unanswered questions—for instance, we may have a very high recognition rate but how do LGBTIQ refugees fare once they have been granted asylum? This means we will try and mobilize more of our resources here and also require partners to obtain a legal entitlement to integration support. On top of all that, we have also just moved into a new office and finally have more space to come up with new projects so stay tuned—the best is yet to come!
