Gay Jamaican Man Wins Asylum in U.S.

Mad Professah just received a press release from reporter and blogger Rex Wockner about the granting of asylum in the United States to a gay man from Jamaica by law students at Columbia University Law School's Clinic on Gender and Sexuality:

NEW YORK (November 8, 2007) - Today, Columbia Law School's Sexuality and
Gender Law Clinic secured asylum for Ven Messam, a gay man who feared
persecution if forced to return to Jamaica because of his sexual
orientation. The grant of asylum, issued by the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, comes at a time when conditions for gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people in Jamaica are getting more
dangerous by the day.

Within just the last month, gay Jamaicans have been murdered and the
government has not intervened. Rampant rumors that hostile groups are
plotting the social cleansing of hundreds of gay people by year's end have
forced countless GLBT people into hiding. Far from a tropical paradise,
this Caribbean nation continues to imprison and kill its gay citizens with
relative impunity.

"I am grateful to the United States government for saving my life," said
Mr. Messam. "My life in Jamaica was constantly in danger, with angry mobs
carrying machetes, stones, knives, and guns, threatening to kill me
because I am gay. When I tried to contact the police for help, the police
instead threatened to arrest me and told me to leave the country if I
wanted to stay safe."

"This asylum grant highlights the particularly severe dangers facing gay
Jamaicans. From election campaigns that use songs which promote burning
and killing gay people to police support for violent, anti-gay mobs, the
Jamaican government is actively menacing and endangering its gay
citizens," said Professor Suzanne B. Goldberg, director of the Sexuality
and Gender Law Clinic.

"Mr. Messam's personal story, and the stories of countless other Jamaicans
demonstrate the terrifying situation facing GLBT individuals in Jamaica"
said Simrin Parmar, one of the Columbia law students who worked on this
case. "We are thankful that Mr. Messam will be able to live openly as a
gay man--safe from government-sponsored persecution," remarked Jennifer
Stark, another Columbia law student who worked on this case, "but it is
alarming to think about the fate of other GLBT people in Jamaica who are
not as fortunate."

Mr. Messam was referred to Columbia's Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic by
Immigration Equality, a national organization focused on immigration
rights for GLBT individuals, which provided important assistance in the
case.

Since this past September, four students from Columbia's Sexuality and
Gender Clinic--Simrin Parmar '08, Jennifer Stark '09, Jonathan Lieberman
'08, and Eileen Plaza '09--have provided legal assistance in preparing
their client's application for asylum. The students spent many months
conducting interviews, drafting affidavits, researching country
conditions, filling out necessary forms, accompanying their client to the
New York asylum office, and providing assistance during his interview.

"This experience--where students are responsible for working through the
challenges of a case that makes a real world difference in an emerging and
important area of law--is what the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic is all
about," said Professor Suzanne B. Goldberg. "Thanks to the students'
work, we can now provide supporting materials to asylum advocates for gay
Jamaicans anywhere in the world," she added.

Columbia Law School's Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic began in September
2006 and currently has eight students. Under Professor Goldberg's
guidance, students have worked on a wide range of projects, from
constitutional litigation to legislative advocacy to immigration cases.
Through the broad scope of its work, clinic students have had the
opportunity to serve both individual and organizational clients, and they
have devoted over 6,500 hours to cases involving issues of sexuality and
gender law. For more information, please visit
http://www.law.columbia.edu/focusareas/clinics/sexuality.

With the movement of IGLHRC's Asylum Project to another organization a few weeks ago, it is heartening to see other organizations stepping up to conduct this very important work.