Gay Asylum Seeker Wins Appeal
A gay man living in America who had his initial application for asylum denied on the grounds that he could always go back in the closet if he was returned to Mexico, had the decision reversed this week.
Immigration Judge John Taylor initially told the man, Jorge Sota Vega, that he could safely return home because he didn’t really look that gay and that it wouldn’t be too hard for him to hide the fact that he was – a decision made in spite of Vega’s reports that he’d been brutalised and even threatened to be killed by Mexican authorities.
Ironically in his appeal, Vega’s lawyers managed to prove that he in fact was at risk, by citing that the grounds on which his initial bid had been rejected had generated such interest from national gay rights groups, that he wouldn’t be able to return to Mexico unknown.
In the end the judge had a change of heart anyway, saying that it wasn’t fair to expect someone to dress or act in a certain way, just to avoid persecution. Fair enough, too.
He’s now living in New York.
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