Stories – from other sites

Jojo Jako Yakob – Assylum from Syria to UK

Posted on February 13, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Death sentence: gay Syrian teenager facing deportation
By Kurt Bayer

HIS only crime was to be gay. For that he was half-drowned, brutally beaten and then fell into a coma. He survived, escaped from jail, fled his country and eventually arrived, exhausted and bedraggled, here in Scotland. And now the Government wants to send him back.

Syrian Jojo Jako Yakob last night pleaded with the Home Office to reverse a deportation order and spare him the certain death he believes he will face if he returns to his country. “I wish to claim asylum and I wish to stay here in Scotland,” he said.

Gay rights activists demanded that homosexuals, such as Yakob, who were facing clear persecution in their homeland, should be granted asylum. But a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy responded by describing homosexuality as a “disease”, which the country sought to “treat”.

The 19-year-old is now to embark on a landmark legal challenge in order to reverse the deportation order so he can spend the rest of his life in Scotland.

Yakob fled his homeland two years ago after managing to survive a harrowing ordeal at the hands of Syrian police and prison guards, when he was arrested for distributing anti-government leaflets.

Following his transfer from police interrogation, prison guards soon discovered that Yakob, a member of the repressed Kurdish minority in the Arab state, was homosexual. He then suffered horrific beatings and was assaulted so badly that he fell into a coma. After being transferred to hospital, he managed to flee to Lebanon making for London, holed up in a lorry.

He applied for asylum and was granted extended leave by the Home Office, but was then arrested in Aberdeen last April after being found in possession of a fake Belgian passport. He was handed a 12-month sentence and sent to Polmont Young Offenders Unit in Falkirk.

His lawyers say his asylum application was then mistakenly withdrawn and, as a result, he has been served with a deportation order, pending a final hearing this May.

If unsuccessful, he will be sent back to Syria. He has been kept at Polmont as a remand prisoner until that date.

His case mirrors that of gay Iranian teenager Mehdi Kazemi, 19, who was this week allowed to stay in Britain after claims that he would be executed if returned to his homeland.

Now, while detained at Polmont, Yakob has appealed against a Home Office deportation order and has instructed top Scottish QC, Mungo Bovey, to fight his case.

Yakob is terrified of being returned to Syria, where homosexuality is illegal, and believes that if he returns, he faces certain death.

Speaking from Polmont last night, Yakob explained why he fears a return to his homeland. “I wish to seek asylum in the UK for a number of reasons,” he said.

“My father is a politician with the Yakiti Party – pro-Kurdish and anti-government. I was arrested when I was 15 years of age for possession of anti-government material. These were basic leaflets for my father’s political party.

“My father was imprisoned before I left Syria for 13 years for anti-government activity.”

Of his arrest, he added: “I was then tortured. I was beaten. At one point I was put up against a wall and a handgun pointed at me. I was told that if I did not tell the authorities what they wanted to know they would shoot me dead. I did not tell them anything, I did not think they would shoot me.

“The police officer then shot me in my upper left arm. At that point, I told them what they wanted to know as I believed that they would shoot me dead.”

Yakob says he was held in police cells for 20 days without charge and subjected to daily electric shock torture and beatings before being transferred to Ahdas Prison, by the Turkish border.

In prison, he formed a relationship with a gay prisoner named Hassain. Yakob explained: “Hassain was serving a sentence, he told me, for 25 years. He told me that the sentence was only because he was gay.

“The Syrian government claim that they do not imprison people any longer for being gay and that in any event the maximum sentence is three years. This is not true. The Syrian authorities will always find other charges to bring against a person.”

After the pair were seen sleeping together in jail, Yakob said he was subjected to systematic beatings, which “went on for days into weeks”.

He added: “This was all because I was gay. No questions were asked of me about my father’s political party or any other political activity. All the questions related to me being gay.

“I was also subjected to cold-water torture, where I was put in a room and buckets of cold water were constantly thrown over me. I could not remember what day it was or how long I had been in prison.

“One day I woke up in hospital in a nearby town of Kamishli. The doctor who was treating me told me that I had been in a coma for 20 days. He said to the authorities that I could not return to prison as I was not fit and I could not stand trial until I had had a rest. He suggested that I be sent home for recuperation.”

Yakob then decided to flee to the UK. “I went home and after two weeks or so I was feeling better. By that time I had decided that the only option I had was to leave Syria. I left Syria and in 20 days or so arrived in the UK by lorry at Dover. I wish to claim asylum and I wish to stay here in Scotland.”

News of Yakob’s case last night sparked outrage among Scotland’s gay rights and equality groups.

Stonewall director Calum Irving said: “We have serious concerns about the UK’s immigration policy, especially since it appears that people are being sent back to countries where their safety is not guaranteed and where they could be persecuted just for being gay.”

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh-based Equality Network added: “I feel that we shouldn’t be sending people back to countries where they will be persecuted, even if they entered the country illegally.”

But a spokesman for the Syrian Embassy in London denied last night that torture of gay people took place. He said: “Homosexuality is illegal in Syria, but there are no special units to deal with this problem.

“People are not prosecuted – society looks at this as a disease for which they can be treated – it is a similar position to that taken by the Vatican. I cannot give a clearer answer.”

Yakob will appear before a full immigration hearing in Glasgow on May 7 to determine his fate. Yakob claims that he wants to start a new life in Scotland.

He said: “If I was to return to Syria, I would either be returned to jail for my political activities, for having left the country and being gay, or alternatively I would be put into the army for the three-year period.

“It is likely that they would put me into the army on the basis that the army would kill me one way or the other.”

This story is located at:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews/Death-sentence-gay-Syrian-teenager.3883009.jp

Mehre Palzanova – Assylum from Turkmenistan

Posted on February 13, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

America as a lesbian safe haven?

By Catherine Price

According to asylum seekers, it’s better to be a lesbian in the U.S. than in most other places in the world.

Maybe I’ve become too cynical, but when I think about places that are friendly to lesbians and gays, the United States — politically, at least — doesn’t top my list. But unfortunately, much of the rest of the world is even worse than we are. An article from Women’s eNews reports that “confronted with barriers to legal U.S. immigration, a small number of foreign lesbians are seeking safety through political asylum.”

The article reports on several cases, such as that of Mehre Palzanova (a pseudonym), an immigrant from Turkmenistan living in New York and the first lesbian from Turkmenistan to be granted political asylum in the United States. When asked about whether she would participate in New York’s Gay Pride Parade, she responded, “If they let me walk with them, I will walk with them. I could never be so proud or so out in my country. And it’s not going to happen any time soon.”

Palzanova lost her job in Turkmenistan because of her sexual orientation and was blacklisted by the government to prevent her from finding another. According to eNews, her father lost a promotion and her family tried to force her to marry. And when the family arguments grew violent, the article reports, police did nothing to help her.

Palzanova’s arrival in America touches on several immigration issues. First, the number of gay men seeking asylum in the United States far outnumbers that of gay women — according to the Asylum Documentation Program of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, 62 lesbians have been allowed to stay in the United States since 1994 (out of 435 inquiries), as opposed to 643 gay men (out of 4,134 inquiries). The article points out that this discrepancy may partially be due to the fact that most persecution of lesbians happens in private at the hands of family members, and “is similar to domestic violence.” Gay men, on the other hand, are more likely to be persecuted by “authorities.” (Interestingly, though, women make up only 37 percent of all asylum requests, according to the Department of Homeland Security. And to put these numbers in context, in 2005 alone, 25,000 people were granted asylum — so homophobes needn’t worry about a “gay wave.”)

The gays and lesbians who are granted political asylum also highlight an unfair aspect of America’s immigration policy: The United States doesn’t recognize same-sex couples for immigration purposes. That means that gays and lesbians can’t sponsor foreign partners, which puts them at a serious disadvantage to heterosexual couples when it comes to bringing loved ones into the country. According to eNews, in 2006 “approximately 27 percent of the total grants of permanent residency were awarded to members of a heterosexual couple.” That policy no doubt contributes to the fact that, according to an immigration policy analyst at Queers for Economic Justice in New York quoted in the article, 40,000 same-sex partners are living in the United States without proper documentation.

I was raised to think of America as a place where people can come to escape persecution and be allowed to live their lives as themselves without fear of punishment. I hope that Palzanova has that experience. But I also know that when it comes to gay and lesbian rights, we have a hell of a long way to go. Here’s hoping that we start taking more steps in that direction so that the phrase “liberty and justice for all” isn’t just a nice thing to say when you’re hoisting up the flag.

This story is located at:
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2007/06/26/lesbian_safehaven/index.html

Pape Mbaye – Senegalese immigrant, West Africa

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Persecuted in Africa, Finding Refuge in New York
October 6, 2008
By KIRK SEMPLE and LYDIA POLGREEN

Pape Mbaye gets a lot of attention. Even in jaded New York, people watch the way he walks (his style defines the word sashay) and scrutinize his outfits, which on a recent afternoon featured white, low-slung capris, a black purse, eyeliner and diamond-studded jewelry.

And he likes it.

“I’m fabulous,” he said. “I feel good.”

Mr. Mbaye, 24, is an entertainer from Dakar, Senegal, known there for his dancing, singing and storytelling. But while his flamboyance may be celebrated in New York, he attracted the wrong kind of attention in West Africa this year, and it nearly cost him his life.

In February, a Senegalese magazine published photographs of what was reported to be an underground gay marriage and said that Mr. Mbaye, who appeared in the photos and is gay himself, had organized the event. In the ensuing six months, Mr. Mbaye said, he was harassed by the police, attacked by armed mobs, driven from his home, maligned in the national media and forced to live on the run across West Africa.

In July, the United States government gave him refugee status, one of the rare instances when such protection has been granted to a foreigner facing persecution based on sexual orientation. A month later, Mr. Mbaye arrived in New York, eventually moving into a small furnished room in the Bronx that rents for $150 per week. It has a bed, air-conditioner, television, cat and pink walls.

“There’s security, there’s independence, there’s peace,” he said of his new country.

But even as he has begun looking for work, with the help of a few Senegalese immigrants he knows from Dakar, Mr. Mbaye is largely avoiding the mainstream Senegalese community, fearing that the same prejudices that drove him out of Africa may dog him here.

One recent evening, while visiting close family friends from Dakar who live in Harlem, he recalled a shopping trip to 116th Street, where many Senegalese work and live. There, he said, he was harassed by a Senegalese man who ridiculed Mr. Mbaye’s outfit and threatened him.

“He said, ‘If you were in Senegal, I would kill you,’ ” Mr. Mbaye said, gesturing with his arms, his voice rising. “I have my freedom now, and that man wanted to take it.”

The United States does not track how often it grants refuge to people fleeing anti-gay persecution. But Christopher Nugent, an immigration lawyer with Holland & Knight, a Washington law firm where he is a senior pro bono counsel specializing in refugee and asylum cases, said that in the past decade he has heard of only a handful.

The government also does not track the number of persecuted gay men and lesbians who are granted asylum, but experts in the field say the number is higher than those granted refugee status. (Asylum is granted to people already in the United States, while people outside the country must seek refugee status.)

Mr. Mbaye’s case was exceptional because his fame made his situation particularly perilous, said Mr. Nugent, who represented Mr. Mbaye in his petition. “He was vilified in the Senegalese media as being the face of the sinful homosexual, and he had scars to show,” he said.

For the past few years, anti-gay hysteria has been sweeping across swaths of Africa, fueled by sensationalist media reports of open homosexuality among public figures and sustained by deep and abiding taboos that have made even the most hateful speech about gays not just acceptable but almost required. Gay men and women have recently been arrested in Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana, among other countries.

“In most countries there is poverty and instability, and usually homosexuality is used as a way of shifting the attention from the actual problem to this thing that is not really the problem but can distract the public,” said Joel Nana, who is from Cameroon and who works for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

Pape Mbaye (pronounced POP mm-BYE) had been living the Senegalese version of the high life for some time. He worked principally as a griot — a singer and storyteller invited to weddings, birthday parties and other events to perform traditional songs, dance and tell stories.

By West African standards, it earned him a good living. He had performed at parties for wealthy and famous Senegalese, had two cars and a driver, an overflowing wardrobe and an apartment in a fashionable neighborhood decked out with rococo gold-leaf-encrusted furniture.

Mr. Mbaye, who said he had known he was gay from a young age, seldom tried to hide his sexuality, often wearing makeup and jewelry in public.

Though Senegal passed an antisodomy law in 1965 that forbids “an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex,” homosexuality has traditionally been quietly tolerated in Senegal, particularly among the creative class of musicians and artists that is so central to Senegalese culture.

But the publication of the gay wedding photos on Feb. 1 dovetailed with a recent surge in anti-gay sentiment, a trend partly fueled by some conservative Islamic leaders, sending Mr. Mbaye on his harrowing odyssey.

On the morning after the article’s publication, Mr. Mbaye and several gay friends were arrested by the police, who held them for four days. During his detention, Mr. Mbaye said, he was questioned about his participation in the marriage ceremony, which he asserted was a party, not a wedding. Under diplomatic pressure from the Netherlands and Denmark, the Senegalese authorities released Mr. Mbaye and his friends.

The singer said the police told him and his friends that they should go into hiding. “The police cannot guarantee your security because the entire society will be out to get you,” a police official said, according to testimony that Mr. Mbaye would later give to Human Rights Watch.

While he was in detention, his apartment was looted and anti-gay graffiti was scrawled on the wall of the building, he said. He and several gay friends fled to Ziguinchor in south Senegal, but in mid-February, a mob wielding broken bottles, forks and other weapons stormed the house and beat them, Mr. Mbaye said.

Mr. Mbaye spent the next several weeks moving from one safe house to another before fleeing to Gambia on May 11. Several days later, President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia vowed to behead all homosexuals in his country. Mr. Mbaye immediately returned to Dakar.

But he was discovered and chased by a crowd, as local news media reported his return. He sought sanctuary at the offices of Raddho, a human rights organization based in Dakar, which put him in the care of Human Rights Watch.

“I am like a hunted animal,” Mr. Mbaye said during an interview while he hid out in a Dakar hotel.

Human Rights Watch helped Mr. Mbaye assemble his refugee application and get to Ghana, where he sought help from the American Embassy in Accra, the country’s capital.

While in Ghana, Mr. Mbaye said, he was attacked again, this time by knife-wielding Senegalese expatriates who had discovered he was there. The assault, which left him with wounds, probably accelerated the review process for his application, Mr. Nugent said. (Confidentiality regulations forbid United States immigration officials from discussing the case.)

Mr. Mbaye received his refugee status on July 31, and he arrived at Kennedy Airport on Aug. 18 carrying several suitcases and a Chanel handbag. A few weeks later, he received his Social Security card and work authorization permit. He hopes to resume his career, though he acknowledges that until he improves his English, he will have to perform in French and Wolof, an African language. He also dreams of getting a modeling contract.

In the meantime, he said, he will do just about anything.

“I would like a job in a restaurant or a hotel or a club or in perfume or in makeup,” he said. “But no bricklaying.”

Mr. Nugent has been posting notices on Internet mailing lists serving the gay community in search of sponsors to help Mr. Mbaye find work, including in gay nightclubs.

Mr. Mbaye seems undaunted. At his friends’ home in Harlem, he celebrated his newfound freedom.

“I want to live with the gays!” he said as his hosts laughed. “Pape Mbaye is American!”

Kirk Semple reported from New York and Lydia Polgreen from Dakar, Senegal.

This story is located at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/nyregion/06pape.html?%2334;same-sex=&_r=4&sq=&st=nyt&oref=slogin&%2334;=&scp=1&pagewanted=print

Augusto Pereira de Souza – Asylum from Brazil to US

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Brazil gay man wins U.S. asylum
By 365gay Newswire
02.08.2010 5:38pm EST

From a Columbia Law School press release:
(New York) Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has won asylum for a gay man who feared persecution because of his sexual orientation if forced to return to his native Brazil.

The grant, issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, comes at a time when conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in Brazil are becoming more dangerous.

“In Brazil, I lived in constant fear for my life,” said Augusto Pereira de Souza, 27. “I tried to hide that I was gay, but still faced repeated beatings, attacks, and threats on my life because I was gay. At times I was attacked by skinheads and brutally beaten by cops. After the cops attack you and threaten your life for being gay, you learn quickly that there is no one that will protect you. For me, coming to the U.S. was a life or death decision.”

Brazil has one of the highest rates of hate crimes against GLBT people in the world. Grupo Gay da Bahia, the leading GLBT rights organization in Brazil, reports that between 1980 and 2009 there were 2,998 reported murders of homosexuals in Brazil. In 2008 alone, over 190 GLBT people were murdered, and the actual number is likely to be much higher since many of these killings go unreported.

“Mr. Pereira de Souza’s story is unfortunately not unusual for a gay man in Brazil,” said Rena Stern, a student who worked on the case. “The number of attacks and murders based on sexual orientation in Brazil has actually increased in recent years.”

Pereira de Souza, who will live in Newark, N.J., was referred to the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic by Immigration Equality, a national organization focused on immigration rights for GLBT individuals that provided important assistance in the case.

“In Brazil, police routinely fail to investigate violence committed against GLBT individuals,” said Brian Ward, another clinic student who helped Pereira de Souza prepare his asylum application. “In this environment, skinheads and other groups are free to persecute, torture, and even kill GLBT individuals with impunity. Asylum will allow Mr. Pereira de Souza to stay in the United States where he will no longer have to fear for his life.”

Since September, three students from the Sexuality and Gender Clinic—Ward, Stern, and Mark Musico —have provided legal assistance in preparing the application for asylum. The students spent many months conducting interviews, drafting affidavits, researching country conditions, filling out the necessary forms, and preparing the client for his interview.

This story is located at:
http://www.365gay.com/news/brazil-gay-man-wins-u-s-asylum/

Jan and Vari

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Jen (U.S.) & Vari (Honduras)
Vari and I met in New York through mutual friends and immediately found we had things in common and a definite attraction. Just as other relationships develop and run their natural course, we followed suit, spending time with one another, moving in together, envisioning our future together, with one exception, Vari was not a citizen of the United States. She was in the U.S. on a tourist visa, which meant she would have to leave every six months on her 10 year visa.

So, six months had passed and we decided to go to Honduras, Vari’s native country and visit her family. We returned a week later to the U.S. and continued life once again as before, with the biggest dilemma of where we should go every six months.

As the other six months passed, we decided on a trip to Europe, landing first in Portugal. We spent the next two weeks exploring Spain, arriving in Barcelona the day the U.S. went to war with Iraq, and continuing on to France and Italy and returning to Spain/Portugal for our departure.

We arrived at Newark Airport, New Jersey a half day later to what would be the worst day of our lives.

The flight we were on had been flagged by immigration as other passengers on the plane looked to be out of place. All foreign women were asked to go to a separate room, where they were to be questioned. Varinia was a foreign woman and went to the room. I preceded through to the immigration checkpoints and waited for Vari. One by one, passengers exited the door where she had gone into. Another immigration officer assured me that my friend would be out shortly.

After an hour, or what felt like an eternity, I began questioning immigration officers of Vari’s whereabouts. Finally, seeing my desperation, they informed me that she was being “denied entry” because it was believed that she was living and working in the U.S. and that they reserved the right to deny anyone that they felt a suspicion.
I was in shock, as I am sure Vari was too!

Not only would they deny her entry but they wanted to send her back where we had come from (Portugal).

Luckily enough, she had a return ticket to Honduras that had not been used because she meet me and was allowed to use the ticket back to Honduras the following day.
Some officers allowed me to write a note to her and give her money, they also returned my car and house keys (the initial items that sparked the suspicion) back to me so I could go home and leave the airport.

When I reflect back on this event, it should be pointed out that the Immigration officers (with the exception of the interrogator) were kind, professional, and were put into a position where by law they had to do their job above compassion. The officer who took Vari’s fingerprints even asked, “Why did you leave in the first place? Why didn’t you just stay?” The answer to this question is that WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS. We are law abiding and educated human beings. On the contrary, I am also not judging others for their decisions regarding this issue.

The next day, I waited desperately for a phone call that Vari had arrived home safely. The phone finally rang and we knew this was the beginning of a painful new step for the both of us.
The hardest part is acceptance. It means, the comfortable life you are accustomed to, career, friends, family and yes, Starbucks, must be sacrificed, so you can be with the one person that you love. (Assuming you decide to go to your partner’s native country.)

In order to go to your partners’ country, you will most likely go on a tourist visa, which means you cannot work. Without work, you have no money, so prepare yourself. Priority number one should be the investment of a vonage phone and modem. Ship, the modem and phone to your partner (they will need a computer and internet connection). For less than 30 dollars a month you can speak to your partner on phone as long as you want. We often look back at the small fortune we wasted on discount phone cards and direct phone calls and wished we had discovered this wonderful service earlier. Next step, set a time frame that will allow you to save enough money to last you the time given on your tourist visa and look for a job that can sponser a work visa. I actually quit my job and sought out another higher paying job and moved in with a friend to save money on rent.

Vari and I spent 9 months apart, with visits every three months.
During this time apart, I sought out some of the best immigration lawyers in New York, researched immigration laws, and looked desperately for couples in the same situation to offer advice or solutions. Needless to say, I came up empty handed.

I flew into San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a country that I was unaware of just two years prior. During our time apart, Vari began working at a major hotel chain and was able to convince the GM to hire me and sponser my work visa. There are two main outlets for Americans wanting to work in a foreign country: teaching English or the Hospitality/Hotel Industry.

We lived together for a year and 3 months in San Pedro Sula, before I decided work was not challenging enough for me, did not speak good Spanish, had no friends to hang out or communicate with, poverty and violence overwhelmed me with fear, and I missed home.
I was completely torn between the person that I loved and wanting to go back to my life in the U.S. I fell into a deep depression.

Little by little, faith and boredom motivated me to search the internet for jobs in countries that would allow for same-sex immigration. But they all had an organized process to qualify you as a skilled immigrant, which meant a lot of paperwork and more time. Then I found an ad for a job that fit Vari’s line of work in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We took a chance, packed our bags, sold our belongings and left for Mexico. We have been here now for three years, just opened our own business and living happily with our two dogs, Bella and Chai.

Our story does not end here; we would ultimately like to come back to the U.S., but as legal citizens. We are grateful to be where we are and wish to the other couples out there facing the same pain to be strong, be smart, and be patient. Every sacrifice has its reward.

This story is located at:
http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1233

Jennifer and Ellen

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Jennifer (U.S.) & Ellen (Taiwan)
Jennifer and I met in an internet chatroom in 1999. After exchanging a few emails and cups of coffee, we knew we were meant for each other. Unlike most new couples, we immediately faced a harsh reality. Would we be able to stay together and have a chance to develop our relationship?

My “Practical Training” (a one year training work permit issued after college) was about to expire. I was up against my non-profit employer. After numerous rejection letters, I finally persuaded them to sponsor me for an H1-B visa (a special skills working visa, renewable only once with a total limit of six years). A brief sigh of relief before more hurdles arose.
Soon after I renewed my H1-B visa and began the process of becoming a permanent resident, I was shocked to learn that the Department of Labor would require my employer to pay me 50% more or else the process could go no further. The Department of Labor has fair wage standards for each type of job and my wage did not meet that standard, even though I was the highest paid in my organization for my job title.

After more negotiations and a final, awesome lawyer, I received a work permit and travel document. I could finally visit my family in Taiwan after 8 years, which I could not do under my H1-B visa as mine was not a re-entry visa. Jennifer met my family and saw my home with me.

Even when we were hanging by a thread, we were not willing to give up and we became activists. We agreed to be in a short film for the HRC Town Hall Meeting, as well as a feature documentary in order to educate others about our issue.

It took five lawyers, lots of money, numerous negotiations, sleepless nights, and sometimes emotional outbursts, but it all came back to the main purpose: we were not going to be forced to separate, no matter what we might be up against.

I finally became a Permanent Resident in the U.S. Even though our story of hardship has a happy ending, we will continue to fight for this cause. Hopefully, in the very near future, we will see all binational same-sex couples have their stories end happily too.

This story is located at:
http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1196

Ken and Toby

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Ken (U.S.) & Toby (Japan)
My name is Ken and in 2003 I met the most wonderful man from Japan. We hit it off immediately and began to have a lot of fun dating each other.

Suddenly one night though, Toby turned to me and told me that he had something horrible to tell me and that if I could not handle it, he would understand if I wanted to move on. He told me that he was an illegal immigrant in this country.

Since I had no idea what all of that meant, I laughed, kissed him on the cheek and said nothing more. That night however I scoured the internet to find out all of the information that I could. I was disappointed to find out that there was nothing I could do to help Toby stay with me.

As the months went by and our relationship grew, I was hopeful that nothing would happen. To this day, nothing has happened, but his student visa has run out, his driver’s license expired and we are very fearful that he will be found out and deported.

I never thought that living in AMERICA, in my country, the land of the free, that I would be so scared and feel so ashamed.

This story is located at:
http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1126

Leslie and Partner

Posted on February 10, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Leslie (U.S.) & Partner (Sweden)
My fiance is from Sweden. He currently lives there and goes to school, but we visit each other for months at a time. His intention was to try to get into a university in the U.S. and obtain a visa that way, but it seemed stupid for him to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to university here when he can go to school for free in Sweden. I agree, we don’t want to rack up the debts.

Now it seems more prudent for me to just move to Sweden since they have the same rights for same-sex couples and allow immigration for gay spouses. The only problem is, I don’t speak Swedish.

I love it there though, and will try to learn the language. But getting a good job in my field without speaking the local language seems difficult. Instead I am applying to graduate schools in Sweden (since they are free, why not?). But if I do this and we marry there and I become a permanent resident in Sweden, what happens to my U.S. citizenship and my inalienable rights as an American? I don’t want to sever ties with America forever.

Every day without each other is so painful. We talk every day, and spend our lives on webcam. We ARE each others family. I have nothing without him. We are very young, but we want to begin our lives together, but its hard with all the obstacles.

My partner speaks fluent English, which is why it would be easier to live here in the U.S.
Hopefully we both can come back when things change in the U.S. This is why I support the UAFA.

This story is located at:
http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1194

Maggie and Yasemin

Posted on February 7, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Maggie (U.S.) & Yasemin (Turkey)
I met my partner in February 2003 in Portland, Oregon. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Somehow I knew she would change my life forever.

Before we planned our commitment ceremony, my partner informed me that in 2002 she had filed a claim for political asylum in the U.S.

At first I had no idea of the impact this would have on us or how our future could possibly be affected. Then I did some research.

My partner had passed the one-year deadline and it would be almost impossible to get past this legal challenge. I further found that there was no relief for same-sex couples under the law.

In January 2005 we were forced to flee to Canada for protection.

It is hard to quantify how it feels to be exiled from your own country!

Yes we are safe and together but we are still not totally adjusted. I think it has to do with the fact that we were essentially forced to live here.

If we had a choice, we would still be home in the U.S.

There is not a day that goes by that both of us yearn to be back home.
As a U.S. citizen, I am still struggling to understand how my relationship is so threatening that it warrants being exiled!

Our life at home was totally destroyed. We had to leave our posses¬sions behind. Our credit was devastated from attempting to stave off our departure and live a normal life at the same time.

When we came to Canada, we had no support network, no place to stay, and no status. For almost three weeks we lived in a shelter.

Neither of us had ever lived like that before and I think it is still having a huge negative effect on us.

This story is located at: http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1127

Mary and Partner

Posted on February 7, 2010. Filed under: Stories - from other sites |

Mary (U.S.) & Partner (Canada)
I am a US citizen and my partner is Canadian. We have been together for three years and have experienced so many difficulties ranging from each of us being turned away at our respective border crossings from time to time in addition to so many other issues.
Unfortunately my partner experienced the worst border crossing events. I understand that US border employees have to do their jobs but I feel that it is so unnecessary to treat people like criminals with two-hour unfriendly “interrogations”. These experiences had been traumatic to both of us. We were both left feeling so discriminated against because of our sexual orientations. And there was no reason for it – we are both law abiding, responsible women.
I’ve become bitter from these experiences alone. I’ve lost faith in the government of the country where I was born and raised, where I operate a successful business and where I pay taxes. I am treated like a second class citizen without the right to be with the person I love.
Because I have property, my partner came to the US to be with me, never expecting the issues that we encountered. Visas are not guaranteed.

We have learned so much through our own research as well as trial and error. As a result, since we luckily live close to a US/Canadian border, we secured an apartment in Canada because of the time requirements for each of us “visiting” each others countries.
This has only been a temporary solution to a long term problem just so we can be together. It’s costly and inconvenient right now but until we can get a president in office who can help the LGBT community by fixing immigration laws I remain bitter.

I am going to try to do all I can to fight the cause here. However, if after doing so makes no difference by the time a new president has been elected or if there is no indication that things will be changing, I will be forced to make Canada my new home. As an American, I shouldn’t be FORCED to choose between country and partner.
This story is located at: http://www.out4immigration.org/immigration/page.html?=&cid=1197