Abstract Turkey is a “transit” country, where refugees spend many years waiting before they have a chance to be resettled to a third country. During this liminal period of waiting, refugees have to pursue and legitimize their asylum claims with various state and parastatal asylum infrastructures, such as the Turkish asylum authority, the UNHCR, third countries’ embassies, and national, international, and diasporic NGOs and aid providers. This article examines how Iranian lesbian refugees navigate these legal, governmental, and humanitarian bodies that make disparate demands to evaluate the “authenticity” of their identities and the “legitimacy” of their claims. I argue that, during the period of waiting in Turkey, lesbian refugees learn to master specific forms of telling and performance demanded by states, NGOs, and communities in order to carve space for themselves in a system that systematically discredits their sexualities. By continually tailoring their narratives and performances to conform to certain “lesbian types” prioritized by these institutions, organizations, and communities, refugees not only make themselves “authentic,” “deserving,” and “legitimate” subjects within established tropes, but also transform how they imagine and embody their own and others’ sexualities and genders.

中文翻译：

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在途的女同性恋难民：土耳其的真实性和合法性

摘要土耳其是一个“过境”国家，难民在那里度过了多年的等待，才有机会被安置到第三国。在这个等待的临界时期，难民必须通过各种国家和半官方的庇护基础设施寻求庇护要求并使其合法化，例如土耳其庇护当局，难民署，第三国大使馆以及国家，国际和流离失所的非政府组织和援助提供者。本文研究了伊朗女同性恋难民如何驾驭这些法律，政府和人道主义机构，这些机构提出了不同的要求，以评估其身份的“真实性”和其主张的“合法性”。我认为，在土耳其等待期间，女同性恋难民学会掌握国家，非政府组织，和社区，以便在系统地区分性别的系统中为自己创造空间。通过不断调整其叙事和表演以适应这些机构，组织和社区优先考虑的某些“女同性恋类型”，难民不仅使自己在既定的比喻中成为“真实的”，“应得的”和“合法的”主题，而且还转变了他们如何想象和体现自己和他人的性别和性别。