Persecuted gays seek asylum: Required to prove they’re gay [video]
”Judges and immigration officials are adding a new hurdle in gay asylum cases that an applicant’s homosexuality must be socially visible…. The rationale is that if you don’t look obviously gay, you can go home and hide your sexuality and don’t need to be worried about being persecuted.”
Lori Adam, a lawyer at the non-profit group Human Rights First, as quoted by the New York Times article about gay people who are seeking asylum in the US because, they claim, they suffered abuse in their home countries. (NY Times)
Jhuan Marreno, 18, claims a US immigration officer told him: “You don’t look gay,” and Romulo Castro, 34, says he was coached by his lawyer to be “anything but bashful” about being gay and explaining how he suffered from persectution in his gay-tolerant home country, Brazil.
The Times says that the sour economy has created “anti-immigrant sentiments” and then relates some anecdoctal evidence about heterosexual immigrants paying high fees to be coached on how to appear gay.
