CultureVoicesFoodEventsCurrent IssueLegalsT&G An LGBT refugee's journey: Escape is only the beginning — starting over is harder LGBTQ asylum seekers go through a lot to escape their home countries - but then they have to rebuild their lives from the ground up in a new country Worcester Magazine Like many stories, it started with a kiss. Except for one 15-year-old girl, it wasn’t the start of a typical teenage first romance story, but the end of her life as she knew it. That one innocent act would see her expelled from school, shamed by a public caning, abandoned by her family and made a pariah in her community.