Couple could be 1st gay refugees

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2004/11/12/710937.html

LANDMARK RULING GIVES MEXICAN DUO OK TO STAY
By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN

A SAME-SEX couple from Mexico has been given the green light to stay here in a landmark ruling that moves them closer to being accepted in Canada as refugees. The men, who now live in Vancouver, allege they were victims of persecution at home based on sexual orientation.

Rogelo Ponce Melchor, 33, and Luis Alberto Bujanda Basaca, 34, lived as a couple in Hermosillo before fleeing to Canada in 2001.

Their initial refugee claim was thrown out by the Immigration and Refugee Board and the men filed an appeal to the Federal Court of Canada, which six weeks ago gave them a new hearing.

Immigration lawyers said a new hearing means they're 90% certain to be deemed refugees and would be the first same sex couple to get protection in Canada.

What perfect timing. Thank you Rogelo and Luis Alberto and CANADA!!

They may be the first same-sex couple to be accepted as refugees on the basis of persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation ("membership in a particular social group", under the Convention refugee definition). (Persecution is not the same as discrimination.)

But many gay individuals have been accepted as refugees, for many years, particularly from areas like countries of the former Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, this led to the practice of some refugee claimants falsely claiming to be gay ...

Here's the Canadian Council on Refugees' paper on the issue:
http://www.web.net/~ccr/sexorien.htm

Here's a google search of materials at the Immigration and Refugee Board website (research and decisions):
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&lr=&cr=countryCA&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=+site:www.irb-cisr.gc.ca+irb+homosexuality+persecution

On a quick glance, I see a decision accepting a gay man from Uganda, where homosexuality is a crime.

we live in when a gay couple has to be accepted as refugees from another nation. I'm sure the editorial board at The Toronto Sun is going to have a right-wing orgy with that story. Anyways, welcome to Canada guys! Hopefully, you will be accepted.