Immigration Law
Senator Requests Asylum for Gay Man in Same-Sex Marriage
Posted Mar 20, 2009 12:13 PM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Sen. John Kerry has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to grant asylum to a gay man married in Massachusetts who was deported despite his rape in Brazil.
Oliveira had sought asylum because he was raped as a teenager and feared additional attacks if he returned to the country, the Associated Press reports. Oliveira is married to a Massachusetts businessman, but gays cannot sponsor their spouses for residence, the Boston Globe reported in an October story.
Kerry says a judge made an “outrageous" decision that Oliveira wasn’t harmed by the rape, the AP story says. The Globe says the judge noted that Brazil bans discrimination against gays and Oliveira has twice returned to the country without incident.
The Globe featured Oliveira’s case in a story about the growth in asylum requests based on a fear of persecution due to sexual preference. A U.S. State Department report found that 116 gays, lesbians and transvestites were killed in Brazil in 2007. In India, Uganda and Jamaica, homosexuality is illegal and carries a 10-year prison term, the story says.
- How B of A’s GC Got Fired: Leave Now, and Leave Your BlackBerry Behind
- Schools Ranked by 'Super Lawyers' Produced
- Law Firm Price Wars Break Out as Some Try ‘Loss Leader’ Bids for Work
- Five Questions for Law Firms Abandoning Lockstep Compensation
- Judge Jails 2 Attorneys for Contempt in 4 Days
- Reed Smith Will Ask Nonequity Partners to Pony Up Possibly 15% of Pay
- Court Deputy Ordered to Apologize or Face Jail After Taking Lawyer's Paperwork
- Skadden Jumps on the Bonus Bandwagon
- ABA Executive Director Resigns
- Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs
Should Supreme Court Justices Be Able to Review News Accounts Before Publication?
Comments
Elizabeth
Mar 20, 2009 1:06 PM CST
sponsoring a spouse for immigration benefits: another ‘special’ right reserved for heterosexuals.
Flag this comment
FlexSF
Mar 20, 2009 1:25 PM CST
Comment removed by moderator.
Flag this comment
boarderthom
Mar 20, 2009 2:39 PM CST
Compare and contrast; one of my high school english teachers drilled that into my head. Compare and contrast: Slave rights and gay rights; the contrasts are easy, the comparisons are profound. Slaves could not get legally married either. They could not create and sign contracts, and what is marriage mostly (legally speaking) but a huge contract with thousands of rights and responsibilities. Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke there last year saying, “That just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion, and respect for all.” Apartheid: A system of laws applied to one category of citizens in order to isolate them and keep them from having privileges and opportunities given to all others. Stop gay apartheid.
Flag this comment
jodi c
Mar 20, 2009 2:49 PM CST
Well said, boarderthom. The notion that gays should be satisfied with civil unions because they give them all the rights of marriage without the label is completely undermined by the fact that, quite simply, civil unions don’t give gay couples all the same rights. (It also makes no sense because, if “marriage” is just a label that gays can do without, why do opponents of gay marriage care so much about it?) Civil unions certainly don’t give gay couples the many rights marriage conveys under federal law, including the right to sponsor a spouse for immigration purposes, the right to federal tax benefits, etc. I don’t have enough information to comment on the strength of Oliveira’s asylum request and whether he has made a compelling case that he would face persecution if returned to Brazil, but he wouldn’t need to request asylum if his spouse could sponsor his residence as heterosexual spouses can.
Flag this comment
B. McLeod
Mar 20, 2009 3:53 PM CST
Such a savage land, Brazil. I wonder if the Brazilian government keeps a statistic on how many gays, lesbians and transvestites were killed in the United States in 2007?
Do you suppose that when autopsies are conducted in Brazil, there is a place for the medical examiner to check as to whether the decedent was gay, lesbian or a transvestite? I can’t believe people even bandy this crap about with a “straight” face.
Flag this comment
Alex
Mar 21, 2009 9:05 AM CST
All homosexuals should face stoning to death, a Muslim preacher declared yesterday.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163510/All-homosexuals-stoned-death-says-Muslim-preacher-hate.html
We are allowing sharia law to come into our banking system. Next we will allow sharia law to mandate that gays be stoned to death.
Does that mean we will have to give asylum to every gay muslim?
Why doesn’t the gay lobby/mafia here in the US support them changing the laws there? Brazil has more homosexuals than the US does. Why do we have to take everyone else’s problems? You don’t get rights if you don’t learn to fight for them.
Flag this comment
J.D.
Mar 22, 2009 1:00 PM CST
^ You bring up a GREAT point. At some point, Western Civilization will have to make a decision about what it values more: the Western version of “civil rights” or Islam.
The two are on a convergence course and our immigration policies are not yet recognizing this. Same for Canada’s policies—they want to provide a welcoming environment for homosexuals, but they also are immigrating a huge muslim population which abhors the notion of “gay rights.” AND, Canada is recognizing sharia law.
The problem is that Libs don’t have the ability to say something is better than something else—no value system, no moral compass. So we’re going to have to fight it out in the streets.
Flag this comment
D. Kemp
Mar 22, 2009 9:30 PM CST
Actually, J.D. you’re incorrect sharia law is not recognized here in Canada. There was an attempt in Ontario, several years ago, to have a sharia tribunal setup but Premier McGuinty shot that idea down. Nice try, you might want to research it again next time.
Flag this comment
Steven
Mar 23, 2009 9:51 AM CST
D. Kemp. Sharia law is recognized in the islamic banking industries both in Candada and the U.S.
It is the gateway drug to allowing the rest of sharia law into both countries.
Flag this comment
Add a Comment
We welcome your comments, but please adhere to our comment policy.
Commenting has expired on this post.