mo illness, people who experienced torture, rape or other forms of severs psychological, physiological or sexual violence (Matti, 2016). Asylum seekers who are defined as vulnerable need to be assigned to appropriate refugee shelters, according to their needs. There is no ruling concerning the vulnerable status of LGBTI refugees on a national level in Austrite Gonsequently. }-GBTI asylum seckers depend foFtheir basic social services ofthe federal caregiver. So far, only the federal law of Carinthia and the federal law of Voralberg have included LGBTI people to the classification of vulnerable people (Matti, 2016). (On the practical level, each LGBTI asylum applicantietfs considered on a case by case examination if they meet the requirements fr asylum. One reason fo sym isthe belonging to.a ‘specific group’ as the Geneva Convention defines. This meand{et the sa same time edch LGBT refugee needs to prof their belonging tothe specific group as well as the eredibility of this claim. There are no data about how many LGBTI refugees were accepted in Austria, as we tigation neato be under protection of privacy. ek “A Additional, the national law: of Ansa a addresses the rights of asylum claimers who experience infringement on their right, Pex self-determination in the Federal Act ‘Concerning the Granting of Asylum (AsylG, 2005) that was amended 2009. Thus, he paragraph 20 ofthe Federal Act Convering the Granting of Asya (A210, 2005) states thatthe asylum seeker who claifi asylum based on the inftingement ofthe “6 / fen sexual self-determination i3¥é the right to demand a same-sex official and judge, if the person does not request otherwise. The §20 (AsyIG, 2005) further states that the asylum seekers need to be informed about their rights to demand a same sex official dealing with their case and the exclusion of asfSudience during the process. However, there are cases that the asylum claimers did not get informed about the possibility to choose the sex of the official they need to tell about the infringement of their sexuality. For instance, one lesbian asylum applicant from Ghana did not get informed about her legal rights and stated that it was not possible for her to speak infront of ie female, judge about her homosexuality and it would have been easier for her to speak to a male judge during her asylum process (Constitutional Court, 2016). However, itis plausible that homosexual men prefer to talkyto_ “female” officials and judgesabout their sexuality,as homophobic attitudes are more _ pronounced for men than for women (Vandello & Bosson, 2013; Louderback & Whitley,