For over a year, Ray Reynolds slept in a hearse. Working at a funeral home in Montego Bay, Jamaica, he spent his life hiding from homophobic mobs threatening to torture and kill him. “Even though I worked at the funeral home, people still called that place and threatened me. ‘Oh, batty bwoy (a derogatory slur) I know where you is. When I’m coming for you, I’m coming with a tanka (tanker truck with bombs) to burn you out.’” The best hiding place he could find was a hearse; they would never expect to find him there. But Ray knew that if he stayed in Jamaica much longer, he would soon find himself in a coffin six feet underground.
He contacted Rainbow Railroad, and soon, they provided him transport to Spain, where he currently lives. Spain offered a starkly different environment for a gay man like Ray. “I’m free to walk. I’m free to be who I am. I’m free to be what I am.” Along with this newfound freedom, Ray can now experience aspects of queer life strictly forbidden in Jamaica. “I see drag queens, gay people, trans people—everyone together—just having a drink at the bar. Nobody cares!”
Ray is one of more than 800 individuals from 38 different countries to receive assistance from Rainbow Railroad. Founded in 2006, the Toronto-based charity helps LGBTQ+ people escape violence and persecution in their home countries. After reviewing thousands of applications for assistance, Rainbow Railroad has built a worldwide network to lend aid to queer people in need and contribute to LGBTQ+ activist organizations abroad.
Much of its work has focused on Jamaica. In 2006, Time magazine named the Caribbean country “the most homophobic place on earth.” Buggery and anti-sodomy laws that criminalize homosexual intimacy are still on the books. Though they are rarely enforced, these laws buttress Jamaican society’s systematic marginalization of queer individuals. LGBTQ+ individuals face mob violence and constant death threats, many coming from the police force. To escape persecution, they travel from town to town, rarely able to settle in one place and hold a steady job. This, coupled with the expulsion from families that many queer Jamaicans face, has driven many to homelessness. Forced to live away from virulent homophobia, many live in sewers.
40% of the requests Rainbow Railroad receives originate in Jamaica; 300 individuals have been relocated in the past two years. Activist groups on the ground have proven invaluable for the mission of Rainbow Railroad. Upon receiving a request for aid, the person’s identity must be verified and aid given in the requisite areas, including everything from plane tickets and hotel stays to housing assistance and legal representation in the refugee application process.
This process can take up to a year, and the average cost per person is $7,500. Surprisingly, Rainbow Railroad receives no money from the Canadian government, relying instead on private donors. Some donors make contributions in the thousands, but others make small donations through the website or become monthly donors.
The charity first received widespread attention in 2017 when it was one of the first international organizations to take action against the anti-LGBTQ+ purge in Chechnya. Led by Ramzan Kadyrov, the police, military and other state actors began capturing gay men at random and transporting them to detention facilities where they were tortured, raped and sometimes killed. Working with the Russian LGBT Network, Rainbow Railroad helped locate individuals in need and co-funded safe houses where queer individuals could live safely while the logistics of escape were handled. To date, 70 individuals from Chechnya, the Caucasus and Russia have been relocated thanks to Rainbow Railroad.
The charity’s work will become all the more necessary in the coming years. Communications director Andrea Houston notes that the amount of requests has been steadily increasing year after year as populism and authoritarianism flourish worldwide. “Unfortunately,” Houston said, “populism seems to be a winning political strategy right now, and the ones who receive the short end of the stick are marginalized people.”
Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of countless queer individuals. Bans on travel stranded queer refugees in their home countries. Lockdown measures gave police the license to target queer people and punish them unequally and disproportionately for lockdown violations. The growth of the state in many nations has allowed homophobia to become more embedded and systemic. For the time being, Rainbow Railroad will have to run nonstop in the fight against discrimination.