by: Zoë Brown
Tom Shepard’s Unsettled is a film that follows the immigration of four individuals from their homes in the global south to the U.S. The documentary reveals the rarely told stories of LGBT refugees. Subhi, Cheyeene, Mari, and Junior flee their oppressive home countries, after enduring violence and intense prosecuting these individuals sought asylum in the U.S. However, as America becomes much more restricting with the entering of immigrants, it has become increasingly difficult for ostracized LGBT individuals to find safety (“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”). Intersectionality is an analytical tool used to understand different forms of oppression that certain individuals experience based on a variety of factors (Burcu Baba). When analyzed through an intersectional lens, Shepard’s Unsettled successfully portrays the multifaceted discrimination that LGBT immigrants experience. This can be seen through both public and private discrimination, and racial discrimination.
The popular culture in Syria, Angola, and the Congo that was represented in the movie is an element that drove the four refugees out of their homelands. Popular culture is essentially the mass culture in a certain area (Storey 1). In the film, Subhi, Cheyeene, Mari, and Junior are surrounded by a very heteronormative popular culture. Heteronormativity enforces heterosexuality as the norm and describes this form of sexuality as natural, therefore labelling any other form of sexuality as deviant. As stated in Storey’s What is Popular Culture, “popular culture is in effect an empty conceptual category, one that can be filled in a wide variety of often conflicting ways, depending on the context of use (Storey 1).” Popular culture is solely dependent on the view of a majority population, it is never constant. Therefore, it never represents a concrete set of guidelines for people to live by. An ideal based upon a mass population can also be very dangerous because it forces people to conform to norms of what is thought to be accepted by popular culture. It outcasts and oppresses difference, displacing their sense of identity and acceptance in their homes. The refugees endure this harsh popular culture and force themselves to flee because of it. Subhi, a gay Syrian man, receives multiple death threats from Islamic terrorists, Cheyenne and Mari, a lesbian couple from Angola, experience relentless harassment from their neighbors (“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”). This is due to the expectations attached to a heteronormative culture, where being a member of the LGBT community warrants threats. Being ostracized from their public sphere keeps them hidden in their homes, unable to continue with their day to day lives. However, their private spaces are not a safe space for them either.
The popular culture that encompassed their communities also influenced their private spheres to be just as oppressive. Subhi received brutal abuse from his homophobic father, and Cheyenne and Mari faced harassment from their families as well. Junior’s mother was the pastor at their church and saw her son as a sinner. Heteronormative nuclear families “have been used as a colonial tool of violence” (Burcu Baba). They force people to sexually conform to the dominant culture. Rather than having a safe and happy place for LGBT individuals, the predominant idea of a nuclear family is another form of colonialization and violence. Without a space in their home countries that they could truly be themselves, LGBT refugees make the decision to leave everything and everyone they know and find refuge in the global North.
Although the U.S. may seem like a saving grace for the refugees, when they arrive, they face prejudice for their race and ethnicities, rather than for their sexual identities. As described in Sara Ahmed’s Being in Question, being asked from where you are from is an assertion of dominance: “For me to explain myself, to explain where I am from, is not only to give an account of not being from here, it is an account of how I ended up brown. Brownness is registered as foreign; brown as elsewhere” (Ahmed 117). The question becomes an explanation from a person of color to a white person (Ahmed 117). This is displayed in the film when Subhi meets his boyfriend’s parents. His boyfriend’s father is very disrespectful when asking Subhi about his past in Syria, and his journey to the U.S. He even reiterates that Subhi is all alone in this new country. Similarly, as the leadership in the U.S. continues to “demonize immigrants” and decrease the entrance of refugees into the country, it is so hard for LGBT individuals seeking asylum to find safety and acceptance (“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America”). In order to do so, they need a sponsor from the U.S., but even if they are lucky enough to find one and come to U.S. there is barely any affordable housing in Northern California for the refugees. When Junior arrived at the “queer promised land” that is Northern California, he spent years trying to find a stable living space. So even after the dangerous and long journey to a safe country, these individuals are still treated as outsiders and are denied basic liberties due to their status as immigrants. They may be accepted for their sexualities, but they still face oppression because of their race.
Although the narrative of lesbian women of color is usually full of intense intersectional oppression, the film displayed Cheyenne and Mari’s experience as easier because they had each other. Like Subhi and Junior, they face harsh discrimination from their public and private spheres of their homes. But once they arrive in the U.S., they were able to find love, support, and strength in each other due to their shared experience. This helps them cope with the realities of a racialized society in a brand new space. The shared experience that they endured only brought them closer together and strengthened their love. They proceeded to achieve their dream of producing music and living happily with each other.
LGBT refugees undergo an immense amount of violence and oppression during their journey to find a safe space. However, even though these individuals faced brutal intersectional prejudices they still had the strength to seek power in their identities despite the societal norms telling them otherwise. This documentary proves to viewers that heteronormative, racialized popular culture does not extinguish the identities of LGBT people of color. Unsettled should be used as a resource to illuminate the oppression that white, cisgender, heterosexual white people never have to experience. Unsettled certainly aided me in acknowledging my own privilege, and the oppression I will never have to face. This documentary was very successful in sharing intersectional oppression of LBGT refugees in the U.S.
Word Count: 1095
Works Cited
Ahmed, Sara. “Being in Question” in Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017. 11-134.
Burcu Baba, Habibe. Gender Race and Popular Culture. 2019.
Storey, John. “What is Popular Culture?” Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. Essex: Person Education Ltd., 2009. 1-15.
“Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America.” Reelout, www.reelout.com/event/unsettled-seeking-refuge-in-america/.
Critical Film Review: Reelout Blog 