Feb
17
There’s an interesting discussion about gay asylum seekers from Mexico on the Media Matters website (you can also watch the Fox News clip there). The rather obnoxious right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly of Fox News is commenting on a recent appeal court decision which allowed a gay asylum seeker a refugee claim based on his claim of persecution because of his sexuality.
I know gay Mexicans who have made it to Canada with refugee claims on this basis.
Unfortunately, in the vein of Fox News, the discussion is basically one-sided, with O’Reilly being countered only very weakly by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelley rather than someone with knowledge of the issue who could argue with O’Reilly.
I’ll make a case against a couple of his claims and I invite readers to add their own voices.
O’REILLY praises the original immigration panel judge’s decision, subsequently overturned by the 9th Circuit, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, stated that the asylum seeker, Soto Vega, “could return to Mexico since ‘it would not be obvious that he was homosexual unless he made it obvious himself.’ ” O’Reilly asserted: “I think the immigration court made the right decision, basically saying, ‘Look, you could be anybody. Just go back there and don’t wear a dress… and you’ll be OK.’ ”
==> This is clearly coming from a man who was no idea of what it is to be gay and who would have have us all repressing our identities and our lives. It’s not about not wearing a dress, it’s about being able to have and live with a partner, being able to have places to go out to and being able to be ourselves. I doubt Soto Vega was wearing a dress when he was assaulted by a Mexican police officer for being gay.
O’REILLY: If you go to any of the resort areas, Cancún or Acapulco, as I mentioned, Puerto Vallarta, any of them — come on, it’s gay parade time. Don’t tell me they’re being persecuted. There’s gay bars; there’s gay restaurants; there’s gay everything.
==> It does seem that a gay Mexican who was being persecuted in their life could leave and go to a place like Puerto Vallarta where if there’s persecution at least there would also be a community to support you. But O’Reilly is again speaking from a place of ignorance. He’s not Mexican. Neither am I but I do know how much more difficult it is for a Mexican than an American to pick up and move to another place. So much of the culture depends on support from family networks. There’s no guarantee of survival for a single gay man picking up and moving to Puerto Vallarta if he doesn’t have the right skills to survive in the city alone. At least in the US, he could probably make enough money to support himself.
O’REILLY states that that ”he could get beat up here” (the US) too, i.e. that anti-gay discrimination exists in the US too.
==> This is kind of a bizarre spurious argument. Things are bad here too so he shouldn’t be admitted. O’Reilly seems to says that unless you’re from from Iran, where “you’ll get beheaded”, you should just put up and suffer with an occasional beating.
What do you think?
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1 Comment so far
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I’ve been to Puerto Vallarta many times and Cancun once; while these places might be quite welcoming to gay tourists, it’s not such an easy life for the gay Mexicans. Mexicans are, for the most part, Roman Catholic and they seem to follow the teachings of the Church very closely. The Pope is very vocal about the evils of being gay and the gay “lifestyle” as it were. The Pope discriminates and millions follow. Mexican society is still very traditional, and while some queer Mexicans are finding acceptance outside of the closet many are still afraid, and rightly so.
People are routinely killed in Mexico (locals mostly) for being gay. It is true that there are gay restaurants and such in cities like Puerto Vallarta, but to suggest that it’s one big gay parade all the time is very misleading. Like many such societies, wealthy gay Mexicans have an easier time of it than the rest. And we know how few people in Mexico are considered wealthy!