The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington plans on Saturday, May
21, to honor local members of the national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered
Workgroup for Holland & Knight LLP. The law firm’s workgroup does pro
bono work to help gay people seeking asylum in the United States.
|
YUSEF NAJAFI
Friday, May 20, 2005
In Gambia, Yorro Kuyateh says he was stripped and beaten violently because he
is gay. Life for the 34-year-old former civics teacher has not been much easier
since he immigrated to the United States from West Africa eight years ago. He
is unemployed, single and in serious need of medical care.
“[In Gambia] one soldier burned his penis with a cigarette, [another
used] the metal end of a belt [to beat him], which resulted in a scalp laceration
and loss of consciousness,” explains Chris Nugent, a gay attorney who
works as the team administrator for Community Services at Holland & Knight,
a law firm in D.C.
Nugent helps coordinate the firm’s pro bono activities worldwide. And
in the past year, Holland & Knight’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &
Transgendered Workgroup, which includes about 30 gay lawyers nationwide —
including Nugent — helped Kuyateh and five other gay men who fled Egypt,
Guyana, Iran, Lebanon and Mexico, contending that they were being persecuted
because of their sexual orientation.
On Saturday, May 21, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington is scheduled
to honor Nugent and his colleagues in the gay workgroup for their pro bono work
on behalf of gay clients. GMCW’s “Spring Affair” awards ceremony
is scheduled to take place at the Hyatt Regency Washington Hotel on Capitol
Hill.
In addition to the lawyers, D.C. City Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large),
Roger Bergstrom and Gary Regan, two senior members of the Gay Men’s Chorus
of Washington, also are scheduled to be honored.
“Roger and Gary are two men in the chorus who are loved by everyone,”
said John Sykes, marketing manger for the GMCW. “They are senior members
who have [dedicated] a lot of their time for the chorus and also have raised
a lot of money for us through volunteer work over the years.”
Holland & Knight is being honored for donating more than 2,000 hours of
work at no charge to assist six asylum seekers:
Kuyateh, who came to the United States with a student visa but in 1998 stopped
attending community college. When he later applied for a job driving a truck,
the company reported him to the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
for not having a valid Social Security number. Kuyateh was detained by immigration
officials and Nugent said another inmate assaulted him for being gay. Because
of his medical problems, Kuyateh was released to live with family and friends
in suburban Maryland. Today, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder
and a seizure disorder as a result of the abuse.
Wissam Abyad of Egypt says he was arrested and imprisoned for more than a year
after he met a police agent posing as a gay man at a McDonald’s. The men
had met on the Internet.
Mohammed, who asked that his actual name not be used, is a gay man from Iran.
He fled that Muslim country in 2002. Lawyers at Holland & Knight said Mohammad
faced further difficulty when the U.S. judge handling his immigration case did
not believe he is gay. Ultimately, the law firm won asylum for him.
Peter Ali, a gay man from Guyana, in South America, is currently being detained
in New Jersey. Attorneys at Holland & Knight claim in their case that Ali
was raped and tortured after being deported from the United States in 1996.
He subsequently returned to the U.S., and was arrested for being an illegal
immigrant. His case is pending.
Jorge, a gay man from Mexico, who does not want his full identify revealed
for security purposes, has been denied asylum by the Board of Immigration Appeals
in San Francisco. Holland & Knight filed a friend-of-the-court brief in
support of his effort to remain in the United States. The case is pending.
Mike Karim, a gay activist from Lebanon, lives in San Diego and was arrested
earlier this year by U.S. immigration officials for not being here legally.
He currently is being detained in San Diego and is represented by the San Francisco
office of Holland & Knight. His case is pending.
“In many of these countries, such as Iran, there is the death penalty
for being gay,” Nugent said.
He added that gays face imprisonment in Egypt, Lebanon and Gambia, based on
anti-gay policies in those countries.
In Guyana, Nugent said gays also could be punished for “homosexual activity.”
While there are no laws against homosexuality in Mexico, Nugent said gay people
like Jorge have faced abuse from government officials.
“People think, ‘God, it was really difficult growing up in the
U.S. as a gay or lesbian,’” Nugent said. “But when you compare
it to the situation people have contended with abroad, the differences are striking.”
|
