Introduction

This chapter examines us asylum laws (both legislative and case law) and policies regarding sexual orientation and transgendered persecution. It addresses the gendered nature of us asylum laws and policies towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) migrants, paying particular attention to the claims of gay men and transgendered women. Queer asylum seekers face particular obstacles in immigrant advocacy communities, and the current laws and policies have implications for what constitutes queer identity. Sexual and family violence has emerged as the dominant narrative in asylum declarations by gay men and transgendered women. The chapter argues that queer asylum is gendered in that laws and policies seemingly facilitate gay men and transgendered women's claims.

Scholars have only recently begun to explore the ways in which sexuality organises migration (Alexander 1994; Espín 1997; Luibhéid 2002, 2005; Rand 2005; Manalansan 2006). While migration studies have a long and rich history, their focus on the nation-state as the primary category of analysis has often ignored the gendered and sexualised bodies of those who cross borders. Sexuality studies, a comparatively newer field of inquiry, took up the task of applying its ideas about sex and gender to migration only during the last two decades. This turn in migration scholarship may be explained, in part, by two significant changes: the growth of sexuality studies as a lens for understanding social phenomena and the emergence of queer subjects as legitimate mobile bodies recognised by the state. ‘Legitimate mobile bodies’ refers to the emergence of laws and policies that facilitate movement across national borders for a range of gendered and sexualised people.

This chapter's contribution to the emerging literature on sexuality and migration studies lies in its examination of us asylum laws and policies regarding sexual orientation and transgendered persecution. Following the work of Martin F. Manalansan IV, it situates queer in a larger intersectional framework, one of gender and nation in particular, but it uses the term as an ‘anti-normative signifier’ as well (Manalansan 2006: 225). Therefore, queer refers to a range of gendered and sexual identities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, that do not fit neatly into the heteronormative schema of masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality.

The discussion relies on the notion of gender as a social relationship between femininity and masculinity.