yourself as a tree beautiful evergreen
fully grown tree that carries fruits and
delicious berries and spring flowers and
matched to any other tree now if you’re
lucky enough you’ll be planted right
here in beautiful British Columbia in an
ecosystem that is so cared for and
diverse and supported but for the sake
of this argument let’s pick a different
location
place where there is a war on trees
there are those who want to cut down all
trees to burn them to ashes to turn
their green leaves to red there are
those who want to eradicate trees now by
the power and will of life within you
you pull your roots from the ground in a
miraculous gesture like those trees from
Lord of the Rings you escape that
hateful land the land that you were
planted in since you’re a mere seed and
you start to walk away you walk across
borders and you walk across foreign
lands to you and tune you until you
reach a green beautiful land just like
this one here and BC and you decide to
plant yourself once more now we all know
that planting a tree in foreign soil is
so let’s not forget this metaphor for a
second and let me tell you but a bit
about myself my name is Danny or not
and when I escaped Syria in July 2012
I felt uprooted it wasn’t really a
calculated decision for me to actually
escape overnight and become the gay
Syrian refugee that I am right now the
situation is chelated in Syria in the
spring and summer of 2012 so much that I
had to take that journey I remember I
remember crying on my best friend’s
shoulder the day that I arrived in
Beirut and he tapped on my shoulder over
and over again and told me everything
everything will be fine but you know
that’s actually jumping ahead in the
story so again name is Danny
Ahmed Danny whatever I was born in 1984
in Damascus Syria to a Muslim
conservative and seriously this
functional family my father was a
redhead short tempered man
I think knew that I was gay since early
childhood so he tried to engage me in
what he considered character building
activities so he got me into aggressive
sports he found me a job at a
construction site and he shaft seriously
and he shoved verses of the Quran down
my throat at every corner but as a child
all I wanted to do was to write poetry
and to read books if I am a tree and the
tree rings that are my soul the earliest
tree ring there is narrated stories of
abandonment of self-loathing of
disconnect from my family my biggest
connection however was with the city of
Damascus itself Damascus you wouldn’t
believe Damascus is a beautiful city
covered in jasmine trees it’s dotted
with historical sites it’s surrounded by
beautiful mountains this city is seven
thousand years old
city and when you walk around the
streets you feel that that the machine
houses are whispering stories to you you
feel that the the mosques are echoing
hymns of people long-lost I was a seed
planted in that country that land was
mine
Arabic the language was my water and
summer was my shelter winter it was so
cleansing in my late teens and early 20s
and due to can problems with my family I
had to leave my family’s home and I had
to leave all of Syria actually my job my
work in journalism took me around the
Middle East I lived in Egypt in Turkey
and Malaysia and Lebanon in Jordan so in
February 2011 I went back to Syria
seeking that sense of belonging that I
so wanted but I couldn’t believe how
disconnected I was you see people were
tired of the economical situation of the
unjust systems of the Orwellian regime
the winters they felt locked in the
summers they felt sad and the streets
they stopped whispering but I believe I
believe that every tree has a role to
play in the ecosystem that it’s part of
and I believe that my role was to
support the lgbtq the lesbian gay
bisexual trans and queer community in
and I guess that’s what I met Miriam now
you’d love her when you meet her when I
met her the minute that I met her I knew
that she was a lesbian
and I mean my gaydar is above average
but not her
Miriam wasn’t hard to figure out at all
but it took us weeks to actually come
out to one another she she dropped hints
about gay friends of hers and honestly I
can’t I can’t stand dropping hints oh I
she responded with a long loud duh
now if Miriam didn’t embrace me with
love that day but she actually reported
me to the police instead I would face
three years in prison public shaming and
torture Miriam and I were born to be
criminals in the eyes of the Syrian law
we were the outcasts of our own society
and we accepted that role within our
society we navigated the city telling
each other over and over again
everything everything will be fine now
by early 2012 the war in Syria has
created the everlasting sounds of
clashes that really deafened our ears we
escaped our troubles we escaped all of
that into my little apartment because
it’s a safe place now mind you when I
got it it was this dark dirty ugly space
but Miriam and I we actually made it
home out of it
we made a community around it I remember
picking up my phone and calling a couple
of my gay friends and she called couple
of her lesbian friends and in that
gender segregated society those two
communities for the first time they
actually connected and those people from
the community felt that they can
actually present their true identities
and feel celebrated and loved for who
they are
we had a moto friends employed friends
and suddenly we all had a home
we were trees four trees that home of
ours would have been our greenhouse
connecting us together and shielding us
from the elements of the world around us
but it sadly didn’t last beautiful
things never last a protest broke
outside of our home we heard the
shouting and the screaming we turned off
our lights and they were shooting
outside we felt lonely now I have to be
honest with you that night actually not
nothing happened we survived the night
but it was the final night to actually
spend in that beautiful home of ours and
that sanctuary of ours we nomadically
traveled around Damascus reminiscing
about the beautiful safety that we felt
in that house and I guess I guess that’s
where my leap took place now I wasn’t an
adventurous man jumping in a bungee jump
somebody actually pushed me forced me
into a freefall you see I was arrested
at the International Damascus Airport in
June 2012 and no one I promise you no
one ever told me why was it the safe
home that I created with my friends was
that my work in journalism on the
nonprofit organizations I honestly don’t
know
now I managed to get out of jail and
overnight I escaped Syria to Lebanon
becoming the gay Syrian refugee that I
am and crying on my friend’s shoulder
and that’s when I felt uprooted like
that glorious tree I was telling you
about that’s when I felt that I need to
find myself a greener land to be part of
so I decided to immigrate to here to
Canada I remember that after two years
of long application processing and from
raising and struggling as a refugee back
in Beirut
I finally got that phone call and I was
invited to meet the visa officer at the
Canadian embassy he looked at me and he
smiled him told me everything
everything will be fine he stamped my
passport and off I came now this is not
the end of my story a lot of people
think that refugees like a fairy tale
they arrived at Canada and hey
everything is fine everything is awesome
in reality it’s like planting a tree in
foreign soil
it might not wither the disconnect from
its ecosystem or the elements of the new
environment that you planted it in in
reality we are refugees yes but we have
lived full lives before we came here
beautiful lives we had careers and
inspirations that we had to leave behind
we had friends and homes that we care
for and yes we have left the war behind
us but I also left behind me that home
of mine and I left Miriam and all of my
friends I left behind me the normality
of speaking in Arabic a language that is
engraved in my head to somebody else
would understand it right away I left
behind me the taste of food and the
smell of things and the traditions and
the way the stores look at night I
honestly have behind me the supermarket
where I used to buy my cigarettes and
and during my first six months here I
actually struggled a lot because I
wasn’t just fighting to establish myself
once more I was actually started
fighting to change the stereotypical
views associated with refugees you see
without Canadian experience or Canadian
education nobody would give me a job
you see a lot of people think that we as
refugees are going to sit on our hands
and spend your tax money in reality
those folks forget that before we were
refugees
were the doctors and the lawyers and the
farmers and the artists and the
storytellers we weren’t born refugees
and Syria it’s not just the war within
country full of deserts that you see on
TV it’s the place where I wore shorts
for the first time the place where I
kissed a boy for the first time it’s
it’s the oldest inhabited city in the
human history
it’s the beacon of humanity itself and
honestly I wouldn’t have left it if it
was safe for me to stay there and it’s
actually hard to stand here and talk to
you folks it’s difficult because I’m
struggling right now I’m struggling with
my survivor’s guilt I feel privileged to
be actually standing on this stage
talking to you all of you or actually
sitting in my apartment overlooking
English Bay watching Netflix while
people while people that I care for
other LGBTQ folks that are my friends
people I hugged people I kissed are
still struggling over there with the
experience of being refugees and I guess
that’s why I do the work that I do I
advocate for the rights of immigration
for refugees who identify as LGBTQ from
not just Syria but from the 80 countries
in the world where homosexuality and
transgenderism are punishable by law
last year with the support of a group of
Canadians I sponsored I also sponsored a
lesbian woman and her sister to join us
here in Canada and with the help of a
local organization here in BC located in
Vancouver called rainbow refugee society
they are here
actually one of them is sitting over
there
[Applause]
and you know you know you and I were
limited we can change the world
we can’t stop the war in Syria but we
can actually change the word for those
people for my people you can help by
preparing the soil right here for those
trees to come and plant themselves you
can help by sponsoring other LGBTQ
identified refugees or refugees in
general it can help by learning about
our culture but the Syrian culture read
our literature know about our books last
summer I was honored to be picked as the
Grand Marshal of the Vancouver gay pride
parade 2016 I marched with dignity
alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
leading that parade and I honestly felt
seen I felt that my struggles meant
something and that the cause that I care
for is not just seen by me and those who
will talk to me and die that I actually
talk to them all the time about it to
but also by the 400,000 people who were
actually watching the parade that day
today I’m here to tell you that my tree
is adjusting I have a job that I adore
in a nonprofit organization called
community in downtown Vancouver I have a
circle of friends that I connect to I
feel part of I have a novel coming up
next year the clothesline swing
that tree of mine has landed here and
routed itself here it’s bringing flowers
and match to any other flowers and it’s
delicious berries are shying with red so
finally I want you to always remember
that immigration is not easily done I
want you to remember that we are not
just mere refugees I want you to
remember that when we come here we bring
with us our aspirations and our hopes
and our dreams and we want to share it
with you and I guess the last thought
that I want to leave with is a message
to those who are still refugees my
people back home and all the refugees
who are struggling still I’m trying I’m
trying my best to turn Canada into a
sanctuary for all of us just like that
beautiful home that we had in Damascus
so believe me believe me when I say
everything everything would be fine thank you very much