Help Saad Apply for Asylum

Hi, my name’s Saad and I’m a non-binary queer person currently living in Lebanon. I’ve started this gofundme in order to be able to afford a plane ticket and a visa to Canada as well as papers to take my cat with me. I’m hoping to apply for asylum in Canada to finally live somewhere safely and with some bare minimum dignity, where I don’t have to fear for my life every day.

My life in Lebanon has been a constant hell that I’ve had to endure day in and day out. My family is constantly toxic towards me, especially about the way I look, (when I’d finally started feeling some form of gender euphoria, barely, when I grew out my hair). My brother is constantly homophobic and physically violent, and has been threatening me saying he’d drag me by the hair or stab me or a number of different violent things.

Society here isn’t any better; the area I live in is very hostile towards visibly queer people. Some of the things I’ve had to endure include being chased by someone and their dog next to the nearest grocer, being surrounded by a group of men directing homophobic and transphobic jokes at me (like hey do you think this f- would suck my d-?) as I was jogging for the first time in months (I had to run across a busy road to get rid of them), being assaulted with a knife when I was returning home quite late (almost getting stabbed in the stomach, which is the main reason why i don't even go out when its a bit dark, and I’ve even endured transphobia from the gay community here when I had my pronouns on a dating app, be it casual transphobia or some people cornering me when we meet while saying violently transphobic things. I’m constantly in fear of my life. I don’t even go out to run errands anymore, I order groceries online even though it’s more expensive to avoid being unsafe.

I’m doing this now because the condition in Lebanon is worsening by the day, and when life gets difficult and almost impossible anywhere, visible minorities are the first to pay the price. I could see this by the increased frequency with which I’m experiencing this abuse and assault, which happens now on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. I don’t want to be killed before I can experience who I am outside an environment so stifling and hostile. I want to be able to do more than just grow out my hair without having to fear for my safety and my life. If I stay any longer here, I will die.

Please help me out with any amount you can. You’ll be saving my life, and giving me a possible future that doesn’t come with the condition of rejecting who I am and suppressing my identity.