McKinnon, ‘The Reading Practices of Immigration Judges’, 2016

Sara L. McKinnon, ‘The Reading Practices of Immigration Judges: Intersectional Invisibility and the Segregation of Gender and Sexuality’, in Gendered Asylum: Race and Violence in U.S. Law and Politics, University of Illinois Press, Urbana; Chicago; Springfield, 2016, pp. 103–122

Abstract

In a New York Times story titled “Gays Seeking Asylum in U.S. Encounter a New Hurdle” published on January 29, 2011, journalist Dan Bilefsky alerted U.S. publics to the politics of reading sexuality and gender in U.S. asylum hearings. The story detailed the experiences of Brazilian-born Romulo Castro, who was in the process of claiming asylum for persecution relating to his sexuality. In Brazil, Castro explained to Bilefsky, “I was persecuted for being fruity, a boygirl, a fatso, a faggot”; in applying for asylum in the United States, Castro was encouraged that “flaunting it was now his best weapon…”