Martin is an HIV-positive gay man from Mexico. Martin felt ‘different’ from other boys from a very young age. His father would punish him harshly for “not acting like a boy.” Upon finding out about his son’s homosexuality, Martin’s father beat him, verbally abused him and then kicked him out of the house with no belongings. He was 15 years old. Since then he has had no contact with his family. He moved in with a friend and started working at the age of 16....
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Gay asylum
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...
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...
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...
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...
Luis, a 24-year-old gay man from Mexico, suffered years of discrimination, harassment, ostracism, and exclusion from school, sports, his family, and peers because of his sexual orientation. Rather than protect him, police officers in Mexico physically assaulted Luis on numerous occasions. In August, 2003, Luis left Mexico seeking safety in the United States. After months of unsuccessfully searching for legal representation, Luis turned to NCLR for assistance. NCLR contacted immigration...
