Queer Refugees: We Have Room
Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, Pride Media.In mid-2019, Victor and Aurelio fled Honduras in the middle of the night and began their journey to the southern border of the U.S.
to ask for asylum. In Honduras, strangers, teachers, landlords, employers — and even their own families — persecuted them for being gay.
Fortunately, Victor and Aurelio were able to enter the United States and ask for protection. Though the road to securing asylum was not easy, they succeeded, and they have recently celebrated their lives together by getting married.However, if the couple had arrived just six months later, they would have been subjected to summary expulsion under Title 42, a public health law that the Trump and Biden administrations have wielded against migrants and asylum seekers 1.9 million times over the course of the last two years.
Under Title 42, thousands of asylum seekers just like Victor and Aurelio have been wrongly denied their day in court and returned to unsafe places south of the border.
