Too Butch For Asylum

American immigration officials examining the cases of gays seeking asylum here are often denying such requests if the applicants "don't look gay enough" to be persecuted in their home countries.

“Judges and immigration officials are adding a new hurdle in gay asylum cases that an applicant’s homosexuality must be socially visible,” said Lori Adams, a lawyer at Human Rights First, a nonprofit group, who advises people seeking asylum based on sexuality. “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.” Jhuan Marrero, 18, who was born in Venezuela but has lived — illegally — in New York since he was 4, said the immigration officer at his asylum interview last week challenged him about his macho demeanor. “I was brought up by my parents to walk and talk like a man,” said Mr. Marrero, who volunteers at the Queens Pride House, a gay and lesbian center in Jackson Heights. “The officer said: ‘You’re not a transsexual. You don’t look gay. How are you at risk?’ I insisted that if I was sent back to Venezuela, I would speak out about being gay and suffer the consequences.”

Some asylum attorneys have advised their clients to appear as flamboyant as possible during their hearings. Adding to the problem is a surge in applicants falsely claiming to be gay in order to escape economic problems in their home countries.

BRITAIN: Deportation Reprieve For Uganda's Brenda Namiggade

Ugandan citizen Brenda Namiggade was already being escorted to London's Heathrow airport tonight when word came that Britain's Home Office had granted a temporary reprieve to her deportation. This comes after gay activists earlier today served UK Home Secretary Theresa May with a petition bearing over 40,000 names.

According to the BBC, some in the British government doubt that Namiggade is actually a lesbian and suspect she is using the claim to stay in the country. Namiggade has repeatedly stated that she is gay and that she fears for her life should she be returned to Uganda.

Her lawyer, Abdulrahman Jafar, said he would argue that Ms Namiggade should be allowed to remain in the UK regardless of her sexuality. "The press coverage about her activities certainly expose her to a real risk if she is to be returned to Uganda," he said. Ms Namigadde, who was held at a detention centre just outside London, has told the BBC's Network Africa programme she was "shaking" with fear at the prospect of returning to Uganda. She said she fled to the UK in 2002 after being beaten and victimised because of her sexuality. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has said people facing persecution for their sexual orientation in Uganda should be given refugee status in other countries.

According to the head of the UK's Border Agency, an immigration judge had previously ruled Namigadde as "not homosexual."

BRITAIN: Activists Hold Kato Vigil Outside London's Uganda High Commission

LGBT activists staged a vigil for David Kato outside of London's Uganda High Commission today, after which they delivered a 40,000-name petition to UK Home Secretary Theresa May, demanding that Britain not send lesbian asylum-seeker Brenda Namigadde back to Uganda. Namigadde says she fears that she too will be murdered if forced to return. Add your name to the petition here.

EU To Czech Republic: Stop Boner Tests

The European Union is telling the Czech Republic to cease testing the homosexuality of gay asylum seekers by hooking them up to a penile tumescence monitor while they watch straight porn. According to Czech immigration officials, getting an erection while watching heterosexual porn meant the applicant was lying about escaping gay persecution in their home country. The Czech Republic is the only EU nation performing such tests.

Czech Republic To Gay Asylum Seekers: Let's See If Straight Porn Gets You Hard

The Czech Republic is being criticized for its bizarre requirement that gay men seeking asylum from persecution in their home countries must first prove their gayness by submitting to a penile tumescence test while viewing straight porn.

According to information provided by the Czech Ministry of the Interior, ‘phallometric testing’ for asylum seekers who claim to be gay may be used “where inconsistencies appear in [an] interview”. This procedure came to light in a German court regarding the claim of a gay Iranian man. In principle, asylum seekers cannot be forced to undergo the test and must give written consent and be fully briefed about the technique. However, those who refuse the test may be assumed to be lying and may fear that their application will be rejected outright if they refuse. In addition, bisexual people are unlikely to pass the test. Hungary is also said to have been using psychiatrists to test whether asylum seekers are really gay.

According to rules set forth by the European Union, such a test violates their ban on inhumane or degrading treatment.

Gay Saudi Diplomat Seeks U.S. Asylum

Saying that his life is in danger and that if he goes back to Saudi Arabia "they will kill me openly in broad daylight,” a gay Saudi diplomat has requested asylum in the United States.

The diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman. In a recent letter that he posted on a Saudi website, Asseri angrily criticized his country’s “backwardness” as well as the role of “militant imams” in Saudi society who have “defaced the tolerance of Islam.” Perhaps most provocatively of all, he has threatened to expose what he describes as politically embarrassing information about members of the Saudi royal family living in luxury in the U.S.

The United States granted it first asylum request based on sexual orientation in 1994, after a 73 year-old ban on homosexual immigrants was finally overturned in 1990.

Quote Of The Day - Lord Rodger

"Just as male hetero­sexuals are free to enjoy themselves playing rugby, drinking beer and talking about girls with their mates, so male homosexuals are to be free to enjoy themselves going to Kylie concerts, drinking exotically-coloured cocktails and talking about boys with their straight female mates." - British Supreme Court Judge Lord Rodger, explaining the Tuesday's ruling that gay people have a right to asylum in the UK.

Anti-gay forces are already decrying the Court's decision, saying that "millions may falsely seek asylum" in Britain under the new rules. Thanks for the ruling, Lord Rodger, but please shut up now.

BRITAIN: Court Rules Gay Asylum Seekers Have A Right To Stay In The UK

Britain's Supreme Court has ruled that gay people who fear retribution in their home countries have a right to asylum in the UK. The decision involved two men from Iran and Cameroon who say they face physical harm should they be returned to their home countries. Via Pink News:

Lord Hope, who read out the judgment, said: "To compel a homosexual person to pretend that his sexuality does not exist or suppress the behaviour by which to manifest itself is to deny him the fundamental right to be who he is." An earlier Court of Appeal decision said the government could return the pair to their home countries on the basis that they could be discreet, despite homosexuality being illegal in both countries and HT suffering violence from his neighbours. The case was brought on behalf of the men by the London office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The men's lawyer, Iona Harding, of Baker & McKenzie, said: "This is an excellent result which will ensure that lesbian, gay and bisexual people receive the protection they are entitled to as refugees in the UK and are not expected to hide their identity in order to escape execution, long prison sentences or other forms of persecution."

Britain's new coalition government says it will institute new rules to stop the deportations of anybody who fears "imprisonment, torture or execution" in their home countries based on their sexual orientation.