Refugees fleeing persecution often have trouble proving their LGBTI status.
Human rights organisation Kaleidoscope Australia hopes to combat inappropriate questions and requests directed at LGBTI refugees during processing a best practice guide released last week.
"There have been other guides, but what they've all done is said 'Don't do this, don't ask these sorts of questions'," she told BuzzFeed News.
"There were two cases this year so far in Australia, where the tribunal members have received completely inappropriate material or asked inappropriate questions, so we're thinking the guides that are out there aren't hitting the mark if these sorts of things are still going on."
In 2012, the Organisation for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) estimated there were approximately 175 million LGBTI people living in danger of persecution. Only 5000 of those people have the opportunity to apply for asylum each year, and only half of that number are successful in their claims, ORAM said.
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"Gay asylum seekers are going to all sorts of extremes to prove that they're gay," she said.
"One of these cases in Australia was an asylum seeker who produced a sexually explicit photo of him and his boyfriend engaging in sex to try and show that he was gay. And the response of the tribunal was 'This shows you once engaged in same-sex sexual conduct, this doesn't prove you're gay'."
In another case, Gerber said, a refugee was asked whether they used lubricant when "engaging in same-sex sexual conduct".