Coming out can be especially difficult for LGB individuals with a migration background. Apart from the difficulties faced because of their sexual orientation, this community may face fear to society, families or peers’ reactions which may make both their coming out and their integration even more difficult. By gaining awareness of such difficulties we may gain understanding of LGB migrants’ situation and, consequently, help them to live an open sexual identity and contribute to their integration in society. It is also crucial that LGB associations, NGOs and educational initiatives pay consideration to the special situation of this community. In this spirit, the EpsiLon project was born as the first project in Europe led by an independent user advisory group consisting of LGBT migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, professionals and researchers from the UK and Europe. The project seeks to fill the information gap about the situation of lesbian, gay and transgender refugees and asylum seekers in refugee camps, detention centers and the community. As they say in their web site: “LGBT migrants are among the most persecuted groups and are frequently subjected to violence, harassment and discrimination by members of their own communities, and by state and non-state agents in the receiving countries” (Ntziadima, 2017). EpsiLon’s key aim is to improve adult education provision in the participating countries and through this innovative learning to allow other European countries to replicate its findings and educational tools. A secondary aim is to design and pilot, evidence based, user-led effective strategies for enhancing basic skills for adult learners, while developing adult educators’ competences to deal with one of Europe’s most marginalised groups of learners. The combination of the rise in migrant and refugee numbers and the persistent inequality and persecution of LGBT individuals, make LGBT migrant and refugees one of the most vulnerable groups in modern Europe. This project aims to help address this issue by increasing the knowledge, skills and awareness of all those adult professionals who come in contact with this community.

In addition to LGB associations and NGOs educational initiatives, city council plans also incorporate measures to encourage respect for migrant LGBs. For instance, Ajuntament de Barcelona underlines the importance to respect the rights of LGB migrants in their Pla Municipal pel Col·lectiu LGTB. The European White Paper, coordinated by Coll-Planas (2011) includes actions regarding this community.

One of the main problems migrant LGBs face deals with reconciling their sexual orientation with the dominant religious beliefs disclosed by the host culture or even the migrant’s own culture. Although religious and spiritual beliefs are positively associated to healthy behaviours such as creating a sense of belonging to a supporting community (Meanley, Pingel, & Bauermeister, 2016) is its demonstrated that this is only the case when there is a coherence between the religious identification and the sexual orientation of the individual (Anderton, Pender, & Asner-Self, 2012). Any identity dissonance between own sexual desires with the opposite religious-cultural beliefs, including homophobic messages, needs to be resolved by the individual (Leong, 2006). LGBs individuals usually feel the pressure to choose between the need of social support and connectedness with a community and the needs for intimate relationships, emotional fulfillment and sexual expression. Some of the usual resolutions followed by migrants LGBs dealing with this kind of integrative task involve changing of religion, reexamining religious doctrines, turning into an individualized spirituality, abandoning the religion or even compartmentalizing your social religious life with your private life (Kubicek, McDavitt, Carpineto, Weiss, Iverson, & Kipke, 2009,). When there is an endorsement to the adverse ideas, feelings and attitudes provided from society toward oneself, we have the worst possible scenario, as it is exemplified by an internalized homonegativity (Whicker, de St. Aubin, & Skerven, 2017). The internalization of religious or social homophobic messages can lead to higher psychological distress and the experience of guilt, demoralization and even suicide attempts (Lytle, Blosnich, De Luca, & Brownson, 2018). Experiencing conflicts between one’s religious beliefs and sexual identity orientation can even motivate to seek out reparative therapy programs, also known as conversion therapy (Barton, 2010). Research concerning particularly on this strategy indicates that is not a good option (American Psychological Association, 2009) as it has been associated to increased depressive symptoms and suicide attempts (Whitman, Glosoff, Kocet, & Tarvydas, 2006).

Community based support groups could provide an empowering environment to discuss issues experienced as a result of religion-sexuality conflicts, in order to develop and maintain relationships with sexual identity-affirming religious leaders and institutions. Incorporating a strong sense of spirituality in their lives and fostering a belief in God’s unconditional love and acceptance of all people is usually mentioned as a beneficial strategy to resolve any kind of sexual identity dissonance (Kubicek et al., 2009). In the context of education, it is very important that teachers and trainee teachers learn to develop inclusive classrooms, offering support to LGB, as it is often the case that LGB students turn to teachers for advice if teachers have previously built trust.

Watch the following videos and reflect about the questions below. In the first one we can see the lives of LGB who have left their countries and live in Germany. The second video is presented by the creator of social support network UNMUTED. In this talk she examines how our culture interacts with our identity, and how we can create spaces for people to bring 100% of themselves to the table; allowing them to become whole again.
https://youtu.be/RuEVR3VrQeg
https://youtu.be/olPn5xr0L08

• Think for a moment and list the thoughts you would fear the most from your family or friends as a reaction if you wanted them to know that you are gay or lesbian. Once you have listed several items try and write a big “R” by the items that you think are related to religious beliefs and a big “C” by the items you consider to be related to culture.
• Observations: Some items may be related to both religion or culture. For instance, let’s think of the fear “not to have children”. For some cultures it is important to have children and children are considered a God blessing. In this case, the fear not to have children can be related to both cultural and religious beliefs. However, there may be people who do not believe in God but consider that having children is very important for personal fulfilment and in order to have family ties. In this case, the fear not to have children can be related to cultural beliefs only.  Think for a moment if having children is important for you and what would you do to become a parent. There are many ways that gays and lesbians can have children if they decide they want to become parents.
• One of the underlying beliefs which promote negative attitudes deal with considering the nature of homosexuality as something controllable, changeable and even a matter of choice. Have you ever encountered this kind of discourse? What do you think about it? What would you say to challenge these views with respectable arguments?
• Being perceived as a threat is also a factor which could lead to negative attitudes towards LGBs individuals. To what extent do you consider traditional religious values could support such perception of threat? Being aware of the importance that these religious values may have for other people will help you analyse their influence in the difficulties faced by LGBs.

• Ajuntament de Barcelona (2010). Pla Municipal pel Col·lectiu LGTB. Retrieved 6, April 2018 from: http://w110.bcn.cat/portal/site/ConsellGlihdt/menuitem.0522f8cad38b12488686ad1520348a0c/index9b3e.html?vgnextoid=0000001312236299VgnV6CONT00000000000RCRD&lang=ca_ES
• Anderton, C. L., Pender, D. A., & Asner-Self, K. K. (2011). A review of the religious identity/sexual orientation identity conflict literature: Revisiting Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 5(3-4), 259-281.
• American Psychological Association. (2009, August). Resolution on appropriate affirmative responses to sexual orientation distress and change efforts. American Psychological Association Council of Representatives. Retrieved 6 april 2018 from http://www.apa.org/about/governance/council/policy/sexual-orientation.aspx.
• Barton, B. (2010). “Abomination” – Life as a bible belt gay. Journal of Homosexuality,57, 465–484.
• Coll-Planas, G. (coord.) (2011). Combating Homophobia. Local Policies for Equality on the grounds of Sexual orientation and Gender Identity. A European White paper. Barcelona:  Ajuntament de Barcelona, Direcció Drets Civils.
• Kubicek, K., McDavitt, B., Carpineto, J., Weiss, G., Iverson, E. F., & Kipke, M. D. (2009). “God Made Me Gay for a Reason” Young Men Who Have Sex With Men’s Resiliency in Resolving Internalized Homophobia From Religious Sources. Journal of Adolescent Research, 24(5), 601-633.
• Leong, P. (2006). Religion, flesh, and blood: Re-creating religious culture in the context of HIV/AIDS. Sociology of Religion, 67(3), 295-311.
• Lytle, M. C., Blosnich, J. R., De Luca, S. M., & Brownson, C. (2018). Association of Religiosity With Sexual Minority Suicide Ideation and Attempt. American journal of preventive medicine.Vol. 54, 5, pp. 644-651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2018.01.019
• Meanley, S., Pingel, E. S., & Bauermeister, J. A. (2016). Psychological well-being among religious and spiritual-identified young gay and bisexual men. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 13(1), 35-45.
• Ntziadima, A. (2017). LGBT refugees and asylum seekers' online platform. Retrieved 17  April,  2018 from http://europa.eu/youth/uk/article/39/41381
• Whicker, D. R., de St. Aubin, E., & Skerven, K. (2017). The role of internalized homonegativity in the faith and psychological health of lesbians. Journal of lesbian studies, 21(4), 478-494.
• Whitman, J. S., Glosoff, H. L., Kocet, M. M., & Tarvydas, V. (2006, May). Ethical issuesrelated to conversion or reparative therapy. Counseling Today. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/PressRoom/NewsReleases.apx?AGuid=b68aba97–2f08–40c2-a400–0630765f72f4