Doors Ajar for Gay Immigrants - If They Can Show Repression
UNITED STATES, Florida, Miami - Matthew Ramos' eyes widen with fear and fill with tears when he speaks of the name-calling and beatings that forced him to flee his native Brazil, reports the Miami Herald.

"They would beat me with clubs wrapped in towels so they wouldn't leave marks,'' said Ramos, 24, of the harassment and humiliation he endured from police because he was gay. "They called me bicha ("faggot'' in Portuguese). They followed me in my car and stopped me for nothing.''

Desperate, he contacted the Dade Human Rights Foundation, a Miami advocacy group that supports gay and lesbian causes, and asked for help. His story became the catalyst for the creation of a South Florida task force to help a small but growing number of gay and lesbian immigrants seeking asylum.

Ramos' request for asylum based on his sexual orientation was granted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- something that would have been unheard of 20 years ago when U.S. laws barred homosexuals from settling in the country, said David Abraham, a University of Miami immigration law professor. "No one would have imagined 20 years ago that sexual orientation would have been a valid basis for asylum,'' he said.

Approving such applications represents a rethinking of the asylum laws once reserved for religious and political applicants, experts say.

The approval also is a newfound recognition that gay and lesbian asylum-seekers are members of a social class that has been persecuted.

As more learn about eligibility for asylum based on sexual orientation, immigration officials and advocates foresee a rise in numbers -- through word of mouth or through task forces that have formed nationwide to help gays.

"America's readiness to see gender and sexual orientation for the basis of granting asylum has been steadily growing as the gay rights movement in the United States has scored significant political and cultural victories,'' Abraham said.

Some 41,000 people applied for U.S. asylum during fiscal year 2000; about 17,000 of those were granted. Because INS does not keep records on the reasons applicants seek asylum, it's difficult to say how many new arrivals are claiming sexual oppression.

The new asylum seekers come from everywhere. Those who settle in South Florida are primarily from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Examples of the persecution they face in their homeland are numerous.

The San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, reports that:

* In San Salvador, a transvestite walking with a male companion died after being gunned down on Nov. 19. Seven similar murders were reported in 1999; 12 in 1998
* In Romania, two men were beaten and faced imprisonment for kissing and holding hands in public.

Other hot spots for antigay assaults and raids are Mexico, Russia, Japan and Pakistan. In Cuba, homosexuals can be imprisoned. In Iran, they can be executed.

"In some of these countries, it's very oppressive,'' said M. Ross Seligson, a Fort Lauderdale psychologist with a gay clientele from Latin America. "They come here for the same reason many people come here -- the language, the large gay community and the weather.''

U.S. immigration officials in Maryland granted a 28-year-old gay Salvadoran man asylum in November. He said he had been beaten and raped by police officers.

Officials in Miami granted a Colombian male couple asylum after they said they proved they were routinely jailed and abused in Bogota. They now live in Hollywood.

The South Florida chapter of the New York-based Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force is one of 15 chapters nationwide.

"It's scary to think of all the immigrants here who don't know they have the option to apply for asylum here if they have been persecuted in their native country,'' said Clark Reynolds, outgoing executive director of the Dade Human Rights Foundation.

But immigration advocates are quick to point out that being gay should not be the only grounds for winning asylum. "Just because you're gay does not mean you are going to get asylum,'' Bill Strassberger, an INS spokesman in Washington, D.C., said. "You are going to get it because you have proven you are fleeing persecution and/or you have a well-founded fear of persecution if you return to your country.''

As in all asylum cases, there is a potential for fraud. INS investigates backgrounds of any asylum-seekers thoroughly to ensure they are not faking claims of persecution.

There are also hurdles that range from applicants documenting their homosexuality to proving they were persecuted. The biggest hurdle of all may lie with gay applicants themselves, in that they may be forced to admit publicly for the first time that they are gay.

When Ramos first applied for asylum, he was forced to reveal his gay lifestyle. "I just wanted to run away. It's like when you are in a burning building -- you just run. I wanted to save my life,'' Ramos said. His fear of retaliation from police officers -- on family members and others still in Brazil -- is so great that he asked that his real name not be used for this article.

When he got the news he had won asylum last October, the task force offered him a job as an office administrator. He hopes one day to return home to Brazil, but says for now, "I'm doing well. I'm starting to be happy again.''

(Miami Herald 04 February 2001 - Johnny Diaz

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