US Asylum Claims Based on Sexual Orientation Difficult to Obtain

LGBT asylum applicants face difficulties in getting their claims approved as long as US constitutional and statutory laws relating to same-sex couples and sexual conduct remain static. The Migration Policy Institute reports:

Since 1998, the United States has processed an average of 46,000 asylum applications each year, according to estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Winning asylum in this country, however, is not an easy task. On average, only 62 percent of these applications have been successful.

Asylum claims based on persecution related to a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) individual's sexual orientation are particularly difficult to file, argue, and win — even with substantial evidence of persecution and ill-treatment. In the United States, asylum on the basis of sexual orientation was first granted to an individual in 1994. The number of LGBT asylum claims has increased slowly but steadily since then.

The success of asylum claims is limited by the following:

(1) the focus on homosexual identity — not homosexual conduct — in US laws

(2) the inapplicability of the usual tests for asylum eligibility in this context

(3) varying definitions of persecution

(4) inadequate legal precedent and discriminatory attitudes in US courts