Cases & Advocacy
Tag
Gay asylum
Cases & Advocacy
In re Valeria
Raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Valeria suffered tremendous abuse from the time she was a young child. By the time she was eight, her parents realized that Valeria was different from her nine siblings because of her gender identity. Years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse followed. And at the age of thirteen, Valeria’s parents kicked her out of the house. In 1985, at age eighteen, Valeria came to the United States, where she received a scholarship to attend beauty school and became...Cases & Advocacy
In re Armando
In 1997, Mexico police raided a gay discotheque under the premise of searching for drugs. No drugs were found; however, the patrons were subjected to demeaning verbal and physical mistreatment. Because Armando was both a witness and a victim of the attack, an officer approached him and took his ID card and told him “you are going to remember me.” From that night on, Armando endured continued harassment, threats, violence, extortion, and robbery at the hands of this police officer...Cases & Advocacy
Soto Vega v. John Ashcroft
On July 24, 2002, Jorge Soto Vega filed for asylum based on persecution he suffered in Mexico because of his sexual orientation. As a child in Mexico, Soto Vega suffered abuse, harassment, and ridicule from family members and classmates because he was perceived to be gay. As a teenager, Soto Vega was severely beaten by officers of the Mexican police force upon suspicion that he was gay. The officers yelled derogatory slurs at Soto Vega as they threatened to kill him in order to “rid the...Cases & Advocacy
W.K. v. Gonzales
The Eighth Circuit denied a petition for reconsideration of its prior decision denying asylum to W.K., a gay man from Zimbabwe. As a teenager in Zimbabwe, W.K. was imprisoned for being gay and suffered harassment and abuse from local authorities and neighbors, including being shocked with an electric wire. Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, was one of the most notoriously anti-gay leaders in the world. He has called lesbians and gay men “worse than dogs and pigs” and...Cases & Advocacy