Broadening Community: Analyzing the Role that Local LGBT Organizations Play in Meeting the Needs of LGBT Asylum-Seekers in the United States

Problem Statement

According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees 55,500 individuals applied for asylum in the US in 2010. What is more, the US Office of Immigration Statistics reported in 2010 that 4,168 people—or 37% of all people granted asylum in the US—resided in the state of California. While the US Immigration and Naturalization Service does not track how many asylum-seekers are fleeing persecution on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, hundreds of individuals likely flee specifically to the state of California from their home countries in order to avoid persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. These lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) asylum-seekers often enter the US without substantial knowledge of the US asylum granting process, and they are vulnerable to deportation, harassment, and exploitation.

Currently, local LGBT organizations, and the LA Gay and Lesbian Center specifically, are not doing enough to address the unique plight of LGBT asylum-seekers and are not actively reaching out to immigrant communities or individual asylum-seekers. This is primarily due to five factors. First, the LAGLC does not see immigration and asylum issues as a pressing concern. Second, the LAGLC does not provide adequate multilingual services; accordingly, LGBT-identified asylum-seekers who do not speak English would have a great deal of difficulty contacting the LAGLC, adequately explaining their situation, and articulating their need for asylum. Third, the LAGLC, as an organization, is uneducated about the unique plights of LGBT asylum-seekers as well as of the resources available to them. Fourth, because the US Immigration and Naturalization Service does not do enough to adequately inform LGBT asylum applicants about the asylum process and their rights within it, both LGBT asylum-seekers and local asylum officers are poorly educated about how sexual orientation and gender identity can be used as a grounds for asylum. Lastly, there is insignificant media and public attention given to LGBT asylum applicants and to asylum more generally. Because of this relatively low public profile, many lawmakers and immigration officials do not realize the difficulties that LGBT asylum-seekers face.