New rules, groups aid asylum quests

 JOHNNY DIAZ

 Matthew Ramos' eyes widen and water like a scared deer's when he speaks of
 the name-calling and the beatings that forced him to flee his native Brazil.

 ``They would beat me with clubs wrapped in towels so they wouldn't leave marks.
 They called me bicha (a derogatory term for a gay man in Portuguese). They
 followed me in my car and stopped me for nothing,'' recalls the 24-year-old of the
 harassment and humiliation he endured from police in Brazil's capital city who
 knew he was gay.

 Desperate and scared, he e-mailed and called the Dade Human Rights
 Foundation, a Miami-based advocacy group that supports gay and lesbian
 causes.

 When he showed up at their front door, his story became the catalyst for a South
 Florida task force that recently formed to help a small but growing number of gay
 and lesbian immigrants seeking asylum on U.S. shores.

 Unlike a little over 10 years ago -- when U.S. laws barred gay men and lesbians
 from settling in the country -- Ramos' request for asylum based on his sexual
 orientation was granted by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in
 Miami.

 Experts say approving such applications represents a relatively new rethinking of
 the asylum laws once reserved for religious and political applicants, and a
 new-found recognition that gay and lesbian asylum seekers are members of a
 social class that has been persecuted.

 As more people learn about their eligibility for asylum based on their sexual
 orientation, immigration officials and advocates foresee a rise in their numbers --
 through word of mouth or through task forces that have formed nationwide to help
 them.

 ``We will undoubtedly see more sexual-orientation asylum cases,'' said David
 Abraham, an immigration law professor at the University of Miami. ``America's
 readiness to see gender and sexual orientation for the basis of granting asylum
 has been steadily growing as the gay rights movement in the United States has
 scored significant political and cultural victories.''

 Some 41,000 people applied for U.S. asylum during fiscal year 2000; about
 17,000 of those were granted. Because the INS does not keep records detailing
 the reasons applicants seek asylum, it's difficult to say how many of the new
 arrivals are claiming such oppression.

 The new wave of asylum seekers hails from around the globe, although those who
 settle in South Florida are primarily from nearby Latin America and the Caribbean.

 Examples of the persecution they face in their homelands are numerous. The San
 Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, a
 watchdog group that documents crimes and abuses against gay people
 worldwide, reports:

   On Nov. 19, a transvestite walking with a male companion died after being
 gunned down in San Salvador. Seven similar murders were reported in 1999; 12 in
 1998. In one of the 1999 incidents, five men dressed in black fired shots from a
 moving taxi at a 37-year-old man who had left a bar with two other men, one of
 them wearing women's clothing.

   In Romania, two men were beaten and faced imprisonment for kissing and
 holding hands in public. Other hot spots for anti-gay assaults and raids are
 Mexico, Russia, Japan and Pakistan. In Cuba, gays can be imprisoned. In Iran,
 they can be executed.

 ``In some of these countries, it's very oppressive and often times [gays] have to
 keep it a secret. Their families reject them,'' said M. Ross Seligson, a Nova
 Southeastern University professor and Fort Lauderdale psychologist with gay
 clientele from Latin America.

 ``They come here for the same reason many people come here -- the language,
 the large gay community and the weather. It's easier to assimilate in places
 where there are a lot of similarities,'' he added.

 SALVADORAN CASE

 U.S. immigration officials in Maryland granted a 28-year-old gay Salvadoran man
 asylum in November. He said he had been beaten and sexually assaulted by
 police officers in his home country.

 Two Colombian men -- whose applications for asylum were approved by the INS in
 Miami in November -- said they were routinely jailed and hosed down, beaten up,
 even shot at after officers in Bogotá discovered they were lovers. They now live in
 Hollywood where one works as a nurse and the other is a pharmacy technician.

 Clark Reynolds, outgoing executive director of the Dade human rights group, said
 the idea of forming a Miami task-force chapter came after Ramos, the Brazilian
 immigrant, and the Colombian couple showed up at his office seeking help.

 The South Florida chapter of the New York-based Lesbian and Gay Immigration
 Rights Task Force is one of 15 chapters nationwide.

 The Miami chapter is made up of a network of immigration attorneys and
 advocates who can answer questions and assist would-be immigrants with the
 asylum application process. A key goal: getting the word out to immigrant groups
 that help is available. Brochures in English, Spanish, Creole and Portuguese
 explaining the task force's mission are being printed for distribution in the coming
 months.

 ``It's scary to think of all the immigrants here who don't know they have the option
 to apply for asylum here if they have been persecuted in their native country,''
 Reynolds added.

 But immigration advocates are quick to point out that being gay should not be the
 only grounds for winning asylum.

 ``Just because you are gay does not mean you are going to get asylum,'' says
 Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the INS in Washington, D.C. ``You are going
 to get [asylum] because you have proven you are fleeing persecution and/or you
 have a well-founded fear of persecution if you return to your country.''

 As in all asylum cases, there is a potential for fraud among applicants. There are
 also hurdles that range from applicants documenting their same-sex orientation to
 proving they were persecuted in their native countries. The biggest hurdle of all for
 some of the applicants may be coming out of secrecy and telling immigration
 officials they are gay.

 The INS documents persecution through a series of oral interviews and written
 testimonies with asylum officials. Police incident reports, medical records that
 show injuries and documentation of human rights violations from certain countries
 are other means would-be immigrants could present for their cases, Strassberger
 added.

 ``No one would have imagined 20 years ago that sexual orientation would have
 been a valid basis for asylum,'' said Abraham, the UM immigration law professor.

 He noted that a U.S. law barring gay men and lesbians from settling in the
 country was repealed in 1990.

 Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a person can be granted asylum if he
 or she establishes a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion,
 nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

 The latter category was clarified in 1994 when then-Attorney General Janet Reno
 said persecution based on sexual orientation can be grounds for asylum.

 Reno's action broadened the significance of a decision by an immigration review
 panel in 1990 in a case involving Fidel Armando Toboso-Alfonso, a Cuban who
 sought political asylum in 1986 on the grounds that he had long been persecuted
 because he was gay.

 For Ramos, the Brazilian, his fear of retaliation from police officers -- against
 family members and others still in Brazil -- is so great that he asked that his real
 name not be used for this article.

 BAD MEMORIES

 By his account, Ramos' problems began in September 1999 in his native Brasília,
 the capital of Brazil. He and his boyfriend were sitting in a parked car ``holding
 hands'' when police officers banged on the car window and dragged them out. The
 officers roughed them up with clubs wrapped in towels.

 ``I just wanted to run away, It's like when you are in a burning building -- you just
 run. I wanted to save my life,'' Ramos said.

 While browsing the Internet looking for help, he stumbled upon the Dade Human
 Rights Foundation website.

 Ramos obtained a visa in Brazil, flew to Miami and called Reynolds last May.

 He hopes one day to return home, but he says for now, ``I'm doing well. I'm
 starting to be happy again.''