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LGBT Refugees More Vulnerable in Trump's America

By Junior Nsamia Mayema
Since Donald Trump became president, I have never seen so much hate being meted out against immigrants, let alone LGBT refugees and asylum seekers like me.
I am from the Democratic Republic of Congo and fled my homeland to escape homophobia. I made my way to South Africa, but experienced additional mistreatment because of my race and gender identity. This mistreatment included a police officer who broke my wrist. I came to the U.S. on Nov. 20, 2014. I was working on fighting housing and employment discrimination. Some of the people who I met were very friendly and welcoming.
After Trump's election in 2016, internalized hatred of LGBT immigrants and refugees became a reality. I lost my job simply because I am a gay immigrant. I could see the different treatment of LGBT Americans, I have been forced out of housing, harassed at school, treated like a social outcast everywhere I go. I filed a discrimination case pending with California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing on the basis of immigration status that was ultimately dismissed because I believe the very people who were discriminating against me contacted the DFEH and probably told them that I am a black tranny immigrant who has no rights in Trump's America. I have been a target of police surveillance for months. It has been a living hell in a safe haven.
Most of my harassers happen to be mostly gay men or transgender women. I think it is because my gender transcends the male and female gender binary. Homonationalism — the abandonment of intersectional activism that leaves the door open to racism, xenophobia, capitalism and the promotion of one's own interests — is real and I see it everyday. The last time that I went to socialize in a gay-friendly environment I was verbally attacked at a bar in the Castro simply because I was talking to a handsome gay American man. I tried to defend myself and then those gay men threatened to call the police on me and then took me by the throat and escorted me outside. I was walking past the same area the next day and I saw them laughing at me and saying that I am not allowed to socialize in that area again.
The reason why I am writing this is because we as LGBT people shouldn't be fighting against each other or hating each other because that is what our homophobic enemies want from us. They want to divide us in order to conquer us.
In my experience, most LGBT Americans who I have met treated me like an outsider, an outcast, an enemy, an alien who must go back to where I came from. I don't know where this intense hatred is coming from. We say we support human rights and equality, and those rights are not only American. They are universal and of course LGBT people are universal. Some are tolerated in their countries but some are persecuted. This is why we are seeking asylum because simply living openly in our countries means death and the communities of our countries in Canada, America or Western Europe come with their homophobia attached to them, so there is no place for us among them.
Let's stop bringing each other down and let's focus on the real enemies. We cannot claim to be human rights advocates while being racists at the same time. We need to change our inside before changing the outside, engage in transformational activism as they call it. Let's be the change we want to see in the world like Obama said. We are brothers and sisters of the same international community, which is the LGBT community. We just happen to be born in other countries with inherited homophobia.
This is why we are seeking security and safety in order to pursue our fundamental human rights to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. I hope our LGBT American brothers and sisters can allow us to have that second chance since our countries of origin continue to fail us.
Junior Nsamia Myaema is a California-based Blade contributor.

This article originally appeared in the Washington Blade and is made available in partnership with the National LGBT Media Association.

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