On February 13, Abdelhalim Hafez Elsayed, known as Halim, a 38-year-old gay man, born in Cairo, Egypt, and most recently, living and working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, stepped off his second Turkish Airlines flight of his journey—Jeddah to Istanbul, then Istanbul to Toronto—into Toronto Pearson International Airport, to begin his new life in Ontario, having been granted asylum by the Canadian government, and assisted by Rainbow Refugee. The group that met Halim at the gate consisted of his sponsors, supporters, and friends: Rainbow Refugee’s Stephen Watt; Yasir and Ameer (spelling approximate), who had also been assisted by Rainbow Refugee; banker Peter Brych and postal worker Tom Earle, the couple giving Halim a place to live in their home; Bill, who, with his partner Don, has welcomed a number of new Canadians; my Canadian cousin Carla Silver, one of Halim’s sponsors; and Joe, who had helped Halim with his application for asylum, and me.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are not LGBTQ-friendly nations. In Cairo, Egypt, Halim’s conservative father kept after him to marry a woman and sent him away from the family home when Halim came out to him, saying, “Get out of the house. You are a disgrace and I do not want to see [you] again. You [are] a shame and a disgrace. Go live alone in room by yourself.” In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Halim was detained by police on suspicion of being gay and tortured—interrogated, strip searched, poked, prodded, beaten, chained, and threatened with prison. At the hotel where he worked, his computer was seized by authorities, looking for evidence that he was gay, and following that, he was fired from his job. Safety and freedom to be gay clearly had to be sought elsewhere. Applying for asylum, Halim wrote, “I do not feel happy and have no peace with myself. I'm afraid to get caught by the police again. So I'm hiding in my room. I do not want to live here in Saudi Arabia and I do not want to return back to Egypt. I feel there is no life for homosexuals in either country. I ask you to protect me and let me live freely for being gay and to look for a country that respects my lifestyle choices and works for me as being a gay person.”
Halim had hoped he could find the liberty he sought in San Francisco, not such a realistic goal in this era of Trump and Pence. There was a thought of his emigrating to Turkey. as a jumping-off point to the West. That plan evaporated when, after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey was not welcoming to Saudis. Canada is a land of immigrants, the place for relief, refuge, and new beginnings that the United States once was. So for Halim, who never saw snow and ice, never before lived in a land where LGBTQ individuals could breathe freely, Canada it would be.
After a long wait, Halim was notified by the Immigration Section of the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi that “Your file has been finalized. Your travel documents have been sent to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).” He was given the travel date of February 19. This was postponed until March 25 and then suddenly moved up to February 11. Some confusion about the flight times led Halim to miss his plane. There would be another wait, but, luckily, he was booked on Turkish Airline flights exactly two days later.
An individual at once gentle and strong, Halim commands immediate respect and affection. In his first days in Toronto, I saw him relate comfortably to very different and diverse groups of people. First there were those of us who met him at the airport. My cousin invited him to come with us for a kosher Shabat dinner, at her home the next night, and meet other relatives of ours. Bill and Don had us to a vegan brunch, at their home the next afternoon, and Halim met people who’d come to Canada from the Middle East and elsewhere. And with our hosts Peter and Tom, we went to the Church-Wellesley Gay Village for Middle Eastern Night at the Black Eagle, Toronto’s leathery bar-with-dance floor, on Church Street. It was Halim’s first time ever in a gay bar. And though we didn’t hear his favorite songs ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and Queen’s “”I Want to Break Free,” he took to the dance floor and the crowd like a veteran of the scene.
The next day, Joe and I took him back to Church Street to visit Glad Day Bookshop, “serving the LGBTQ+ Community since 1970,” and to clothing stores and other LGBTQ establishments.
With Peter guiding him, Halim applied for a permanent residency card, the Canadian equivalent of our green card; secured a social insurance number, akin to our social security number; opened a Canadian bank account; and acquired a Toronto cell phone number and plan.
We introduced Halim to pierogis and to Japanese food.
Stephen asked me to share Rainbow Refugee’s website, www.rainbowrefugee.com, with himself, at stephen_watt@hotmail.com, as contact person. When I told him about our Ugandan friend Babirye Leila, a Fire Island Artist Residency artist, who successfully acquired asylum in the United States during the Obama era, Stephen urged me to inform readers about the Ugandan Children of the Sun Foundation and gave me these links: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ugandan-masquerade-ball-party-pride and https://m.facebook.com/cosf.uganda .
I am sure that Joe and I will be meeting Halim and the others I’ve mentioned here again and again, so watch this publication for updates.

photo credits & captions:
photos by Bruce-Michael Gelbert & Joseph R. Saporito
Halim arrives at Toronto Pearson International Airport
(left to right) Bill, Yasir, Stephen, Halim, Carla, Peter, Joe & Tom at Pearson Airport
Halim meets my Canadian cousins for Shabat dinner
gathering at Don & Bill's for vegan brunch
Halim at Glad Day Bookshop in the Church-Wellesley Gay Village
family portrait: (left to right) Halim, Tom, Maxim & Peter
Halim & his painting "The Sun Is Shining," Saudi Arabia, 2017
Halim, Joe & Bruce-Michael at the Loaded Pierogi in the Church-Wellesley Gay Village