A U.S. immigratn board mt ci whether non-U.S. cizens who are perceived to be gay their home untri n qualify for asylum the U.S. regardls of their actual sexual orientatn, a feral appeals urt said on Thursday.
Contents:
- PEOPLE PERCEIVED TO BE GAY ULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR ASYLUM, U.S. URT SAYS
- GAYS AND LBIANS SEEKG ASYLUM IN U.S. MAY FD A HARD ROAD
- AS A GAY ASYLUM SEEKER, I WAS LUCKY
- LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
- JUDGE ORRS U.S. TO RETURN GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER PORTED TO CHAD
- GAYS SEEKG ASYLUM U.S. ENUNTER A NEW HURDLE
PEOPLE PERCEIVED TO BE GAY ULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR ASYLUM, U.S. URT SAYS
* gay assylum *
REUTERS/Noah BergerSummaryLaw FirmsPeople thought to be gay uld be 'social group' unr asylum lawCourt says immigratn board mt ci issueGuatemalan woman beaten, threatened for wearg men's cloth(Rters) - A U. Board of Immigratn Appeals (BIA) has for s held that gay people om certa untri qualify as such social BIA was wrong to fd that Anton's asylum applitn had more to do wh the way she drsed than her sexual orientatn, Circu Judge Mark Bent wrote for the panel.
Ain Rabow Fay (ARF) is a non-for-prof charable anisatn that support lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr tersexual and queer (LGBTIQ) people of Ain herage and the wir Black Asian Mory Ethnic groups. To w your asylum claim/appeal, you need to wre out a full, tailed personal acunt of the homophobic persecutn that you suffered, and/ or you know other LGBTs have suffered your home untry, and/or that you fear you will suffer if you return to your home untry. Supportg evince n also clu pi of newspaper reports (dated and sourced) about homophobia your home untry, reports om human rights groups like Amnty Internatnal and Human Rights Watch, and news releas om LGBT groups Internatnal Lbian and Gay Associatn and the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn etc.
Frank Mugisha, director of the group Sexual Mori Uganda, says, "We're gog to see people gettg beaten on the streets, we're gog to see people thrown out by their fai, we're gog to see people beg evicted by their landlords, we're gog to see people losg jobs, we're gog to see people thrown out of school, bee they are perceived or not as homosexuals. Severe persecutn and discrimatn om both State and non-State actors force lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, tersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) persons – cludg children and olr persons, wh and whout disabili – to leave their plac of habual rince search of a safe environment which they n fully exercise their rights.
GAYS AND LBIANS SEEKG ASYLUM IN U.S. MAY FD A HARD ROAD
Laws like Uganda's that outlaw homosexualy may enurage some gay people abroad to seek asylum the U.S. But provg a "well-found fear of persecutn" is not an easy path. * gay assylum *
LGBTIQ+ persons who do cross a natnal borr may arrive untri where they face siar or higher risks of homophobic, bi-phobic and transphobic vlence om both natnals of the host untry as well as om other displaced people. As a person who has shared the same strs of beg a gay asylum seeker the UK wh lots of other applints, I was happy yterday to hear that the aln agreement between the Tori and the Lib Dems clud a promise to "stop the portatn of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular untri bee their sexual orientatn or genr intifitn puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or executn" everybody is as lucky as I was seekg asylum the Uned Kgdom. Wh a month after my asylum terview wh the Home Office I had the posive cisn my hand, partly bee I had a huge ternatnal support and also partly bee my applitn was mostly based on my polil activi rather than my homosexualy.
The first one is the strongt but 's the latter that is given to gay asylum seekers almost all of the Home Office's attu toward gay asylum seekers the UK has been very ntroversial recent years.
AS A GAY ASYLUM SEEKER, I WAS LUCKY
Homosexuals livg the natn illegally and seekg protectn agast beg ported to ls tolerant societi may risk beg viewed as not openly gay enough to qualify. * gay assylum *
In regards to Iran, although s notor rerd of executg homosexuals is very well documented by ternatnal human rights anisatns, large numbers of gay Iranian s have been turned down every year.
In two recent Iranian s, one applint, known as "J" had to go to appeals urt after his claim was surprisgly, the asylum applitn for Kiana Firouz, a lbian Iranian actrs who has been urageoly public about her homosexualy, was turned down. Amnty Internatnal and Human Rights Watch have also documented the persecutn of homosexuals Boroumand Foundatn, a US-based Iranian human rights anisatn, has also rerd 146 executns wh charg related to homosexualy sce 1979. In 1991, s reply to quiri ma by a UN special reprentative, the Iranian ernment stated that "acrdg to the Islamic Sharia, homosexuals who nfs to their acts and sist on [their homosexualy] are nmned to ath".
LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
However, sce Mahmoud Ahmadejad's disgraceful nial of the existence of homosexuals Iran his 2007 Columbia Universy Q&A, the Iranian gay muny has won some regnn unrground, spe the great danger of executn. The number of gay blogs Iran has surprisgly creased sce then, ter-based gay novels and magaz have been published and recently, an Iranian rad webse based the Netherlands, has lnched a special gay fom. It's the right time for the Home Office not only to protect those homosexuals who have well-found fear of persecutn but also to put an end to the tentn of the children and fai of asylum seekers.
Image source, Getty ImagIn the latt sign of risg homophobia different Ain untri, a Kenyan opposn MP is leadg a mpaign for parliament to further crimalise the untry's small LGBTQ muny. Gee Peter Kaluma's move after neighbourg Uganda adopted a tough new anti-gay law, rejectg threats by US Print Joe Bin to impose sanctns and travel rtrictns on "anyone volved ser human rights ab".
"We want to prohib everythg to do wh homosexualy, " Mr Kaluma tells me, addg that his bill will be much broar than the legislatn passed by Uganda's parliament and approved by Print Yoweri Meveni May. The Ugandan law is regard as one of the harsht anti-LGBTQ laws the propos life imprisonment for anyone nvicted of homosexualy, and the ath penalty for so-lled aggravated s, which clu havg gay sex wh someone below the age of 18 or where someone be fected wh a life-long illns such as the other si of the ntent, MPs Ghana earlier this month unanimoly voted favour of amendments to the untry's anti-gay legislatn, phg closer to beg enacted to law. Though ls harsh than Uganda's new law, the Promotn of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Fay Valu Bill propos a three-year prison sentence for anyone who intifi as LGBTQ and a 10-year sentence for anyone who promot homosexualy.
JUDGE ORRS U.S. TO RETURN GAY ASYLUM-SEEKER PORTED TO CHAD
Gay sex is already illegal Kenya, but the ernment n also be tolerant of gay people - for example, has given asylum to people om other Ain untri, cludg Uganda, who faced persecutn their home untri bee of their sexual orientatn.
Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Many Kenyans believe that gay rights are agast their relign - whether Christian or MlimAlthough the meetg Uganda was billed as an attempt to protect the "sovereignty" of Ain stat, was actually -sponsored by an Amerin Christian right-wg anisatn, Fay Watch Internatnal (FWI) Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian prit the Anglin Church and an amic at Boston Universy the US, says Ain untri are beg targeted by FWI and siar US-based anisatns, and that the impact of s lobbyg has been "horrible and humane" parts of Ai, fuellg what he lls "ant homophobia".
"It is one thg to say: 'I don't agree wh you beg gay', but we didn't have the ant one, where policians now are sayg: 'You go to jail for life, you go to jail for talkg about beg gay, you go to jail bee you're livg wh your fellow woman', " Dr Kaoma says. For now, the vote set up Spa — a untry saddled wh livg memory of Fran-era firg squads, prison and shock treatment for gays and lbians and legal limatns on women’s rights — as somethg of a firewall agast the hard-right parti movg to ernment across Europe.
GAYS SEEKG ASYLUM U.S. ENUNTER A NEW HURDLE
It is okay to e the terms terchangeably the body of the claratn, but the noun “homosexual, ” pecially the phrase, “I am a homosexual” sounds very clil and has a slightly negative nnotatn.
The bt way to do this is by providg tailed rmatn about his “g out” procs, cludg when he first began to realize that he was gay and when he had his first romantic relatnship wh another man. I still had one more year before I would graduate and thought that movg someplace new, I uld leave my troubl behd me, but almost immediately, my new classmat spected that I was gay and ma my life miserable llg me not by my name but nam like “bicha” (“faggot”). » Practice poter: To prove that the applint actually is a member of the particular social group of “homosexuals, ” is important to clu tailed rmatn about relatnships he had as proof of his sexual orientatn.
» Practice poter: Sce asylum claims are based on fear of future persecutn as well as past persecutn, is helpful to clu acunts of ser problems that other gay people the applint knew experienced.