The Other Amerin Dream: How a Gay Immigrant Fought to Live His Tth and Found Succs

Contents:

• ROBERT GARCIA, CONGRS' FIRST GAY IMMIGRANT, IS BEG THE QUEER ROLE MOL HE NEVER HAD (EXCLIVE)
• FALLY FREE TO BE ME AS A YOUNG, GAY IMMIGRANT
• THE FIRST GAY IMMIGRANT CONGRS
• IMMIGRANT SEXUAL CIZENSHIP: INTERSECTNAL TEMPLAT AMONG MEXIN GAY IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNED STAT
• PRS SEC. JEAN-PIERRE: "I AM A BLACK, GAY, IMMIGRANT WOMAN, THE FIRST OF ALL THREE OF THOSE TO HOLD THIS POSN.”
• ANOTHER ELECTN FIRST: CALIFORNIA SENDG FIRST OPENLY GAY IMMIGRANT TO CONGRS
• FOR GAY IMMIGRANTS, MARRIAGE RULG BRGS RELIEF AND A PATH TO A GREEN CARD
• THE GAY MEN TURNG TO THE FAR RIGHT GERMANY
• GAY IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED, EVEN LEGAL MARRIAG
• GAY IMMIGRANTS ON EMOTNAL ROLLER COASTER OVER DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT
• THE FIRST GAY, IMMIGRANT U.S. REPRENTATIVE WILL BE SWORN WH A SUPERMAN COMIC
• GAY, IMMIGRANT GROUPS ISSUE TRAVEL ADVISORI AGAST FLORIDA
• GAY IMMIGRANT SEEKS ASYLUM WH DEPORTATN TO IRAN PENDG
• MARRIED, GAY IMMIGRANT FIGHTS TO STAY HOTON AREA
• MAKG MASCULY: NEGOTIATNS OF GENR PRENTATN AMONG LATO GAY MEN
• POPULAR QUEBEC TV HOST DENISE BOMBARDIER SPOKE OUT AGAST IMMIGRATN AND GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY GRAPHIC NOVELS BOOKS

ROBERT GARCIA, CONGRS' FIRST GAY IMMIGRANT, IS BEG THE QUEER ROLE MOL HE NEVER HAD (EXCLIVE)

Acrdg to the Lbian and Gay Immigratn Rights Task Force, "The anecdotal evince suggts that judg are willg to fd that separatn of a gay or lbian uple nstut extreme hardship and will grant gays or lbians spensn of portatn, if they n prove that they would endure this hardship if ported" (emphasis origal). For example, the Uned Kgdom grants immigratn sponsorship privileg to unmarried upl, homosexual or heterosexual, if they have been livg together for at least four years " a relatnship ak to marriage, " they are not legally able to marry the Uned Kgdom, they tend to live together permanently, and one of them is prent and settled the Uned Kgdom.

The Hawaii platiffs' lawyer laid out the strategy for the Honolulu Star-Bullet, which reported: "If the Vermont high urt l favor of homosexual unns, a gay uple om Hawaii uld go to Vermont to get married and return to Hawaii and mand regnn of the marriage unr a nstutnal provisn that requir stat to regnize each other's statut and legal bonds....

FALLY FREE TO BE ME AS A YOUNG, GAY IMMIGRANT

But the bottom le for me on LGBTQ rights and workg wh Republins is that for me to work wh someone, you have to at least value my basic you’re not willg to accept the fact that I, as a gay person, have a right to be married, have a right to adopt children, have a right to protectns the workplace, if you’re not gog to afford me that basic rpect and digny, I really don’t have a lot of tert workg wh you. Analysis of ethnographic data om a study of 76 Mexin gay and bisexual male immigrants to San Diego, California reveals the specific cizenship templat that the men enunter as they negotiate their tersectg social stat as gay/bisexual and as immigrants (legal or undocumented); the clu an “asylum” template, a “rights” template, and a “lol attachments” template.

We scribe the practil tertwg of legal and sexual cizenship three distct cizenship templat that the men enuntered: an “asylum template, ” by means of which gay and bisexual immigrant men learned how to asss and assert their eligibily for asylum as protectn om antigay persecutn Mexi; a “rights template, ” which nsisted of a language for prottg jtic experienced as immigrants or as sexual mori; and a “lol attachments template, ” through which the men “learned the rop” of gay life San Diego and simultaneoly “learned rights. A foc on group-based claims to equaly characteriz recent efforts the Uned Stat to extend to gay batnal upl (where one partner is a cizen or permanent rint and the other is a foreign natnal) the same rights to fay unifitn currently enjoyed by heterosexual batnal upl (Human Rights Watch/Immigratn Equaly 2006, Luibhéid 2008).

Later, the 1952 McCarren-Walter Immigratn and Natnaly Act barred entry of “aliens afflicted wh psychopathic personaly, epilepsy or mental fect, ” which was terpreted by Congrs and the Immigratn and Naturalizatn Service to clu “homosexuals and sex perverts” (Luibhéid 1998, Luibhéid 2002, Coleman 2008).

THE FIRST GAY IMMIGRANT CONGRS

Th part bee of the particular way which the stat of “gay” and “asylum-seeker” were brought together this template, a mol of belongg that seemed enablg prciple proved largely unavailable practice for this our participants, one received asylum between the first terview and the follow-up, and another submted a claim durg that terval. ’”13But an addnal and nsequential barrier, perceived by a number of our participants, ncerned the assumptn ma by some immigratn judg that nventnally mascule appearg gay men did not mer asylum bee they uld effectively avoid harassment their native untri simply by passg as heterosexual. But other gay immigrants who lacked legal rincy stat the Uned Stat and who might have wanted to avail themselv of the optn of asylum found that the template's particular tertwg of legal requirements and sexual inty expectatns left them whout a credible “rights” templateA send cizenship template that was available for acquisn by the immigrant men our study was one that juxtaposed or bridged nceptns of one's rights as an immigrant to the Uned Stat and one's rights as a gay person livg there.

IMMIGRANT SEXUAL CIZENSHIP: INTERSECTNAL TEMPLAT AMONG MEXIN GAY IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNED STAT

For example, Bernardo, a 37-year-old high school graduate om Tijuana who was a permanent rint, ma clear that he personally was not terted marriage but argued that those gays who did want “are human begs jt like everyone else and they have that right [to petn] the ernment. For example, Valentín, a 27-year-old wh a high school tn om a ral area, plaed vociferoly about how his employers at a rtrant “began to look down on” him once they disvered that he “didn't have papers”: not only did they cut his pay and rce his hours, but also his sexualy beme an issue for the first time, as they began to badger him wh requts to intify who else at the rtrant was gay.

Ined, the se of immigrant sexual cizenship, we thk plsible to suggt that lol attachments are pecially signifint, sofar as they may serve as termediate pots of lkage between experienc, emotns, and enunters that are highly personal, physil, and timate and abstract notns of one's relatnship to a remote and often threateng men our study arrived San Diego wh wily varyg knowledge about the cy's gay life. Ined, several of them, livg wh fay members heavily Mexin and Mexin-Amerin suburbs loted between San Diego and the borr, did not learn until months after arrival that San Diego even had a gay the bulk of our participants, there were two ccial pathways to the velopment of a gay life the Uned Stat.

“I feel very fortable a gay and lbian area, like we have a right to everythg..., ” said Narciso, a twenty-year-old undocumented man, wh an elementary school tn, om a small town a ral as much as the “lol attachments” template proved liberatory and enablg for gay Mexin immigrants to San Diego, also posed obstacl that stemmed precisely om the tersectnal nature of their stat as immigrant sexual cizens. One participant, Jto (a 32-year-old, high school ted man), spoke of the fear prompted him by the experienc of two undocumented gay iends of his, both of whom were ported after their “extremely jealo” Amerin boyiends reported them to immigratn thori: “If they get angry, they n simply pick up the telephone and get me trouble. ” Several undocumented participants scribed problems gag entry to gay bars bee of a lack of proper intifitn; many others simply uld not get to gay venu easily an tomobile-pennt cy like San Diego, bee they feared that a route traffic stop uld rult portatn if they were found to be drivg whout a license.

PRS SEC. JEAN-PIERRE: "I AM A BLACK, GAY, IMMIGRANT WOMAN, THE FIRST OF ALL THREE OF THOSE TO HOLD THIS POSN.”

ConclnAs reflected the experienc and disurse of our participants, immigrant sexual cizenship is bt nceived both tersectnal and multislar terms, as a bundle of practic, attribut, and possibili that enpsulat qutns of legal stat and sexual belongg, and that jos everyday teractns wh urban gay neighborhoods to polici of the natn-state.

Therefore our analysis pots the way toward an even more thoroughgog tersectnal acunt that lks legal and sexual cizenship wh a diverse array of social attribut and scribg Mexin gay and bisexual immigrant men's enunter wh and acquisn of specific templat of cizenship, we have emphasized both the enablg and nstrag nsequenc. ” Amid the harassment and persecutn of lbians, gay men and others read as “subversive, ” all of whom were viewed as threats to natnal secury, Congrs passed a law that barred LGBTQ foreigners om the Uned so, when people like Sarah Harb Quiroz attempted to cross the borr 1960, she faced harassment and was subject to removal.

ANOTHER ELECTN FIRST: CALIFORNIA SENDG FIRST OPENLY GAY IMMIGRANT TO CONGRS

While many asylum seekers have fay or ethnic muny members who may help them fd hom, LGBT asylum seekers are pecially vulnerable to homelsns bee they are often ostracized or fear seekg help om fay or me members of their untry who might share homophobic views that ed the asylum seeker to flee their untry the first place.

FOR GAY IMMIGRANTS, MARRIAGE RULG BRGS RELIEF AND A PATH TO A GREEN CARD

”A Massachetts church group that's uniquely foced on support for immigrants fleeg their untri due to their sexual orientatn has opened a new, permanent home for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr asylum LGBT Asylum Task Force, a mistry of Hadwen Park Congregatnal Church Worcter, raised more than $500, 000 to purchase and renovate a dilapidated, three-story former group home on the cy’s well-heeled wt Green, director of the LGBT Asylum Task Force, a mistry of Hadwen Park Congregatnal Church, Worcter, Mass., speaks wh a reporter om The Associated Prs, Dec.

And groups like the LGBT Asylum Project  San Francis foc on providg legal help while others like the Trans Queer Pueblo  Phoenix, Arizona, foc on muny buildg and church mistry started 2008, when the Uned Church of Christ ngregatn rallied to support a sgle gay immigrant om the church’s reputatn spread, migrants om Jamai and the dozens of other untri where homosexualy is explicly outlawed began arrivg, oftentim unannounced, Hanlon said. “They're really acceptg me as I am, and that's been heartwarmg, ” she new home’s openg as immigrant and gay rights activists ph Print Joe Bin’s admistratn to make good on his mpaign promise to undo harmful polici enacted unr former Print Donald Bin admistratn has rcd a le that ma harr for migrants, cludg LGBT persons, to qualify for asylum bee of domtic abe or gang vlence, said Ari Shaw, a director at the Williams Instute, a rearch center at the UCLA School of Law foced on sexual orientatn and genr other Tmp-era immigratn polici disproportnately impactg gay and transgenr migrants also rema effect, such as the e of Tle 42 of the U.

Followg a urt orr, the Bin admistratn also recently announced plans to restate Tmp's Migrant Protectn Protols, which forced many asylum seekers to wa Mexi while their asylum claims were beg Department of Homeland Secury's guidance for rumg the so-lled “Rema Mexi” policy clus a new exemptn for gay and transgenr dividuals, although there’s ncern among some advot about how that will be implemented practice. Gay and transgenr dividuals n seek asylum unr the same legal tegory as those persecuted for their race, relign or polil at the Worcter home, Spyke says he’s still wrappg his head around the eedoms Ameri Jamai, his fay ostracized him after fdg out he was gay and he faced harassment, even popular tourist statns like Montego livg the U. Infante’s expulsn, the immigratn judge examed the cisn and cleared the way for him to rema this untry wh his hband as long as he wanted, as a legal permanent gay Amerins married to foreigners, the impact of the feral marriage act had been severe, leavg many livg fear that they uld be separated om their spo.

THE GAY MEN TURNG TO THE FAR RIGHT GERMANY

As a matter of policy, the Obama admistratn has not been rryg out portatns of immigrants same-sex upl durg the past two years, but the removal orrs remaed s immediate effects, the Supreme Court’s cisn elimated prohibns agast gay immigrants that have lgered Amerin immigratn law sce 1952. Had the uple been straight and not gay, Vandiver would have been allowed to apply for permanent rince stat for Velandia, who uld then later apply for their dream to build a life together is been railed by the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which f marriage as between a man and a woman unr all feral laws, cludg immigratn. Gay upl have not had the same hearts soared this week when the Obama admistratn put a hold on cisns immigratn s volvg married gay upl -- a temporary reprieve while lawyers evaluated the their hop were dashed Wednday when the Uned Stat Cizen and Immigratn Servic announced would ntue to procs portatns, potentially separatg upl like Velandia and has been legal nfn over the s sce Febary, when the admistratn said the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unnstutnal.

But 's unclear how many, if any, were based on an dividual's sexual orientatn bee the agency do not track those Tiven, executive director of Immigratn Equaly, which advot for gay and lbian asylum seekers, said the group handled more than 200 s last year, cludg several om Iran.

GAY IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED, EVEN LEGAL MARRIAG

Immigrant and gay advot have asked the ernment to stop portg gay and lbian upl who uld be eligible for fay-based green rds if the law is clared the ia of grantg any kd of immigratn benefs to same-sex upl remas highly ntroversial, and has met wh stnch opposn om immigratn-ntrol advot and om Christian nservativ who oppose gay marriage. AdvertisementArticle ntu below this adStill, immigrant and gay advot have found hope the recent victori for same-sex upl and a Junememo by ICE Director John Morton, who stcted his agents and attorneys to e the agency's limed rourc to prrize the portatns of immigrants wh ser crimal rerds. Many of the men, particularly the early stag of g out of the closet, associated Whe gay men (and their associated social scene) wh femy, while attachg notns of masculy to beg an “thentic” Lato has been extensive rearch on masculy among heterosexual men (Kimmel, 1996; Msner, 2000), men of lor (Miran, 1997; Kelley, 2004; Pase, 2007), and gay Whe men (Connell, 1992; Leve and Kimmel, 1998; Yng et al, 2006).

For example, Carter (2005) revealed that workg-class mori posss “non-domant” forms of cultural pal that they e to mediate the distributn of social stat their exclud om domant forms of power and enomic pal, which is the se for many gay racial mori (Cantú, 1999; Moore, 2006; Decena, 2008), dividuals may nstct new s of power relatns which they implement a cultural value system that adapts to their unique needs and rourc, spac that Bourdi (1996) has termed as “fields. Mal who fail to act tough or who show emotn are often told to stop actg like “girls” or “fags, ” a practice that further rerc the subordate posn of both women and homosexuals relative to straight men (Msner, 2000; Pase, 2007) the heterogeney of men – across race, class, relign, geography and sexual orientatn – is important to note that masculy do not rry the same meang and value across all social ntexts.

GAY IMMIGRANTS ON EMOTNAL ROLLER COASTER OVER DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT

Ultimately, however, such socially margalized men often still utilize masculy to secure important forms of pal their lol ntext (Reich, 2010) such, masculy matas value among mory, gay and mory gay dividuals, but their boundari and negotiatns of masculy differ om heterosexual Whe men (Hooks, 2003; Kelley, 2004). Intertgly, Whe peers adhered to mory boundari of masculy, as they never chastised Blacks and Filipos for engagg behavr nsired “feme” by Wh’ standards (Pase, 2007) turn, though popular nstctns and unrstandgs of homosexualy often associate gay men wh femy (Chncey, 1994; Miran, 1997; Pase, 2007; Lneman, 2008), numero segments of the gay muny ntue to valorize mascule genr prentatn (Harris, 1997; Leve and Kimmel, 1998; Nardi, 1999). Compared wh middle-class Whe gays, gay mori tend to be more pennt on social, emotnal, cultural and enomic support om their ethnic/racial muni, which outweighs the benefs of jog mastream gay social circl, which some fd to be racist and classist (Díaz, 1997; Cantú, 1999; Guzmán, 2006; Cantú et al, 2009; Moore, 2010).

As a rult, numero parti – mastream gays, HIV/AIDS anizatns and Lato gay men themselv – have blamed Lato “culture” for the opprsn, isolatn and high-risk behavrs that are associated wh Lato gay men (Díaz, 1997; Cantú, 1999) late Lnel Cantú (1999) astutely criqued such cultural explanatns for maskg the unrlyg stctural factors (for example, race, class, legal stat) that shape Lato gay men's liv.

Given that gay muni of lor are difficult for rearchers to lote (Moore, 2006, 2008), Los Angel was an ial ntext to study Lato gay men's liv for four primary reasons: the magnu of the US-born Lato populatn, the modifitn and mercializatn of Lato sexualy (as evinced through the prevalence of Lato-specific gay nightclubs and events), the “stutnalizatn or mastreamg” of both gay and Lato spac and the existence of HIV preventn programs targetg Latos (Cantú et al, 2009, 120). The factors meant there were ample opportuni to lote different social arenas which I uld nduct ethnographic fieldwork and regularly teract wh Lato gay a ground theory approach, I began my fieldwork by attendg Lato gay nightclub events Wt Hollywood (the mec of Los Angel gay life) and surroundg areas, such as Hollywood, Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley. Rponnts were between the ag of 21 and 30 at the time of my data than optg to terview a large sample of Lato gay men, I foced on acpanyg this relatively smaller sample of men bee I wanted to observe directly how Lato gay men negotiate their genr prentatn vis-à-vis multiple reference pots, cludg mastream and ethnic-specific gay spac (for example, gay pri events, art shows, gay eateri), as well as mastream and ethnic-specific heteronormative spac (for example, malls, rtrants, neighborhood ntexts).

THE FIRST GAY, IMMIGRANT U.S. REPRENTATIVE WILL BE SWORN WH A SUPERMAN COMIC

Footnote 4 Given the relatnal nature of both genr and racial inty (Omi and Want, 1994; Guzmán, 2006; Pase, 2007), I chose the venu bee their rpective clientele, mographic and cultural them (for example, mic, dér) allowed me to observe how Lato gay men do masculy vis-à-vis different reference pots. ” This may expla why many of my rponnts granted me genero accs to their public and private liv ways they did not for dividuals we enuntered who were of other racial backgrounds, particularly Wh and non-Filipo “Urban” Masculy: Prentatn of Self among Lato gay MenWhile the term “urban” broadly not metropolan areas, such as Los Angel and New York, I do not mean to be rctnist my e of the phrase “urban masculy.

In sum, rponnts’ unrstandgs of the relatnship between “appropriate” genr prentatn and public spac reflected not only differenc cultural tast between Lato and Whe gay men, but also illtrated how Lato gay men negotiate their genr prentatn and racializatn Distancg: Lato Masculy as Non-Whe and Non-“gay”The boundary that Lato gay men felt between themselv and Whe gays affected their relatnship to the sexual inty “gay, ” a label they associated wh Whe and feme gay men.

Unlike other studi that suggt that g out n dispt Lato gays’ relatnships wh fay (Decena, 2008), the fdgs show how nyg one's sexualy promised one's masculy among other Lato gay the end of my fieldwork, Javier went so far as to masculize the slur “faggot” when nonted by mors of his sexualy. As such, “manng up” to beg gay reprented an example of how the rpective cultural value systems of mastream Whe gays and of the neighborhood align, rather than ntradict, particular Masculi across Race and ContextMasculy shap the liv of all members of society regardls of race, ethnicy, sexual orientatn, class and even sex (Connell, 1992; Kimmel, 1996; Leve and Kimmel, 1998; Pase, 2007).

GAY, IMMIGRANT GROUPS ISSUE TRAVEL ADVISORI AGAST FLORIDA

Men who are socially margalized still benef om this hegemonic masculy but do not posss bee the masculy they ploy may be stigmatized social arenas beyond their immediate ntext, as is the se among men who are racial mori, poor, gay or transgenr (Reich, 2010; Schilt, 2011). As gays bee more visible to the mastream society, has bee creasgly important to unrstand how to mimize social equali wh the larger LGBT muny, so that efforts to secure polil rights, such as the recent movements for marriage equaly, have a stronger and more diverse polil base om which to build momentum.

GAY IMMIGRANT SEEKS ASYLUM WH DEPORTATN TO IRAN PENDG

It was the start of a reer at the state-owned broadster that lasted until 2004, when she was fired after she unleashed a particularly harsh attack on same-sex marriage durg a TV terview wh a gay-rights Bombardier earned a BA om the Universy of Montreal 1964 and an MA polil science om the same universy 1971. Lnel Cantu, Junr, suat his analysis wh the history of Mexin immigratn and offers a broad unrstandg of diverse migratory experienc rangg om recent gay asylum seekers to an asssment of gay tourism a variety of methods cludg archival rearch, terviews, and ethnographic rearch to explore the range of experienc of Mexin men who have sex wh men and the polil enomy of sexualy and immigratn.

Dozens of Democrats the Hoe and Senate troduced legislatn this week that would make harr to hold illegal aliens ctody if they qualify as a "vulnerable person, " such as those who are gay, lbian or transgenr, who don’t speak English, or who meet other fns of the term unr the Digny for Detaed Immigrants Act, om Rep.

MARRIED, GAY IMMIGRANT FIGHTS TO STAY HOTON AREA

MAKG MASCULY: NEGOTIATNS OF GENR PRENTATN AMONG LATO GAY MEN

POPULAR QUEBEC TV HOST DENISE BOMBARDIER SPOKE OUT AGAST IMMIGRATN AND GAY MARRIAGE

GAY GRAPHIC NOVELS BOOKS