The 7th Kay Everett Memorial Lecture: "Simply being gay" and "Gaming the system": a look at some myths about legal protection for LGBTQI+ refugees

Dr David Chirico KC is a leading barrister in the field of immigration and human rights. Before studying law, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL. He works particularly with vulnerable clients, including clients whose asylum claims raise issues relating to sexual orientation / gender identity, and was a trustee of Rainbow Migration for 10 years. 

David ‘has an incredible legal brain but also is incredibly modest and generous with his knowledge’ and we are delighted that he will be sharing his expertise with us our keynote lecturer.

Panelists

Ayesha Aziz joined Rainbow Migration in March 2022. She is the Legal Service Manager. Rainbow Migration is charity that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people through the asylum and immigration system and provide practical and emotional support. Rainbow Migration also give specialist legal information and advice to LGBTQI+ people who are seeking asylum, carryout campaign and policy work to improve the asylum and immigration system. 

Ayesha is a practicing solicitor with over 9 years of Post Qualification Experience in immigration law. Ayesha is qualified as a Level 2 Senior Caseworker and Supervisor under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme. She has also worked as Resettlement Expert with UNHCR in Egypt and Iran. She worked with European Lawyers In Levos (ELIL) as a volunteer lawyer. Ayesha’s pronouns are she/her.

Moud Goba currently works as a National Director for Micro Rainbow, the leading organisation in the UK supporting LGBTQI migrants. She leads the organisation programmes at national level: their safe housing work which provides 30,000 bed-nights a year to homeless LGBTQI asylum seekers and their social inclusion and employability schemes. More recently Moud has managed the integration process of LGBTQI people who arrived to the UK from Afghanistan. 

Moud is one of the founding members of UK Black Pride and she is the current Chair of their Board of Trustees. Moud was recently named as one of the BBC 100 women for 2022 and was the recipient of a Kaleidoscope lifetime achievement award, a BET international global good award. Her pronouns are she/her.

Moderator

Eddie Bruce-Jones is Professor of Law and Head of the School of Law, Gender and Media at SOAS. He researches in the areas of racial justice, migration law, colonalism and law and the humanities. He served for a decade on the trustee board of Rainbow Migration.

About the Kay Everett Memorial Lecture Series

The Kay Everett Lecture Series is a collaboration between SOAS School of Law and Wilson Solicitors LLP in memory of Kay Everett.

Kay Everett read Law and Chinese at the University of Leeds before working first at the City firm Lovells and later at the magic circle firm of Freshfields in 2000. In 2004, Kay turned from the field of finance and commercial law to study human rights law at SOAS. Upon graduating, she joined Wilson Solicitors. She was a passionate fighter for the most vulnerable of clients, many of them facing indefinite detention or immediate removal. 

Kay was instrumental in establishing the public law department at the firm. She was appointed Partner in 2012. Kay was first diagnosed with cancer in 2009 when only 36. She fought the disease with tenacity and amazing dignity. In so doing Kay inspired all who knew and loved her.