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Comedian savagely trolls UK Home Secretary who said refugees pretend to be gay to qualify for asylum

Joe Lycett
Joe Lycett

British comedian Joe Lycett expertly trolled UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her suggestion that being LGBTQ+ should not qualify refugees for asylum and for suggesting that people are pretending to be gay to “game the system.”

Lycett posted a facetious letter to Braverman on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he announced the establishment of his new company, Homo Hunters, which he said he will use “to reduce the bombardment of immigrants and enmesh our island with foreign homosexuals.”

“I too am disgusted by men pretending to be gay and think we should weed out this scourge from our society,” Lycett wrote. “I know for example that [gay comedian] Alan Carr is actually married to a foul woman called Sandra…”

He asserted that like Braverman, he believes “in bold and radical change, and also that sometimes you just have to stamp a dog.” He then introduced Homo Hunters as a plan to “eradicate all those fake sausage-noshers and massively reduce successful asylum applicants.”

“All immigrants will be excluded from the United Kingdom UNLESS they can prove that they are gay (to me),” he said.

He then introduced the criteria he would use to determine who is really gay, explaining that applicants would be faced with three tables, one containing a Lady Gaga CD, one with a “naked twink,” and one with a fleece from major British retailer Mark & Spencer.

“If the applicant tries to have sex with any of these things, they will be determined gay and warmly welcomed into the country,” Lycett joked. “If they attempt to wear the M&S Blue Harbour fleece, mention crypto, VPNs or MMA, they will be inhumanely destroyed.”

He concluded by calling out Braverman for being a child of immigrants herself.

“Just because you and your family have benefited from a system doesn’t mean that system should not be smashed to bits,” he said.

The controversy began when Braverman was speaking to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday about what she characterized as the “existential challenge” of “uncontrolled and illegal migration,” Braverman suggested that the United Nation’s 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights should be reformed, the BBC reported.

“As case law has developed, what we have seen in practice is an interpretive shift away from ‘persecution,’ in favor of something more akin to a definition of ‘discrimination,’” Braverman told the AEI crowd. “The practical consequence of which has been to expand the number of those who may qualify for asylum, and to lower the threshold for doing so.”

“Let me be clear, there are vast swathes of the world where it is extremely difficult to be gay, or to be a woman. Where individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary,” she continued. “But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin is sufficient to qualify for protection.”

Braverman’s comments drew swift backlash, even from members of the U.K.’s conservative Tory party, who accused her of alienating LGBTQ+ voters.

On Wednesday, Braverman doubled down on her comments in the wake of the criticism, claiming without evidence that there are “many instances” of asylum seekers who pretend to be LGBTQ+ to “game the system.”

“People do game the system – they purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment. That’s not fair. It’s not right. I’m afraid we do see many instances when people purport to be gay when they’re not actually gay,” she said on ITV’s Peston.

According to ITV, the most recent figures from the U.K.’s Home Office indicate that only two percent of asylum claims in the country last year included sexual orientation as part of their basis.

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