These Sustainable Homes in Mexico Receive & Protect LGBTQ Migrants
NowThis
2019-07-15
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Many asylum seekers from Central America have particularly difficult stories because they are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
José, who is a gay English teacher from Honduras, is also one of thousands waiting for their turn to seek asylum in the U.S. He currently resides in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico.
“Once [the gangs] know that you belong to the community of LGBTI, it is different, everything is different,” he explained. “Even though I’m a teacher, even though I had the economy to have my own things. It’s like I don’t have any rights in my country.”
From 2009 to 2015, at least 215 LGBTQ+ people were murdered in Honduras—and a majority of those deaths have gone unpunished.
“This hate kills people,” Roman, who assists and brings together Central American LGBTQ+ migrants, stated. “We have to travel in caravans to help each other because, at this moment, it’s the only way to traverse Mexico.”
The U.S.’ asylum backlog has led to thousands of people waiting in limbo in Mexican border cities like Tijuana, and local advocates say the shortage of shelters in the area puts more vulnerable people at risk.
However, places like Casa de Luz, built by nonprofit Safe Shelters Inc., hires and partners with local volunteers to provide asylum seekers with shelter, support, and basic necessities while they wait to claim their cases. The organization does this by converting properties in Mexico into sustainable long-term housing.
“The LGBT community faces their own vulnerability in Tijuana because there is [prejudice]. And they needed a place where they could be safe and not have to move around,” Casa Dd Luz’s Director Vivian Farmery stated. “This shelter is being created to be long-term and therapeutic so that after everything that they’ve been through, they deserve to have a place where they can relax and feel safe, a recover from both the trauma of their journey and the difficulties that they’ve endured in their home country.”
This video, "These Sustainable Homes in Mexico Receive & Protect LGBTQ Migrants", first appeared on
nowthisnews.com.
José, who is a gay English teacher from Honduras, is also one of thousands waiting for their turn to seek asylum in the U.S. He currently resides in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico.
“Once [the gangs] know that you belong to the community of LGBTI, it is different, everything is different,” he explained. “Even though I’m a teacher, even though I had the economy to have my own things. It’s like I don’t have any rights in my country.”
From 2009 to 2015, at least 215 LGBTQ+ people were murdered in Honduras—and a majority of those deaths have gone unpunished.
“This hate kills people,” Roman, who assists and brings together Central American LGBTQ+ migrants, stated. “We have to travel in caravans to help each other because, at this moment, it’s the only way to traverse Mexico.”
The U.S.’ asylum backlog has led to thousands of people waiting in limbo in Mexican border cities like Tijuana, and local advocates say the shortage of shelters in the area puts more vulnerable people at risk.
However, places like Casa de Luz, built by nonprofit Safe Shelters Inc., hires and partners with local volunteers to provide asylum seekers with shelter, support, and basic necessities while they wait to claim their cases. The organization does this by converting properties in Mexico into sustainable long-term housing.
“The LGBT community faces their own vulnerability in Tijuana because there is [prejudice]. And they needed a place where they could be safe and not have to move around,” Casa Dd Luz’s Director Vivian Farmery stated. “This shelter is being created to be long-term and therapeutic so that after everything that they’ve been through, they deserve to have a place where they can relax and feel safe, a recover from both the trauma of their journey and the difficulties that they’ve endured in their home country.”
This video, "These Sustainable Homes in Mexico Receive & Protect LGBTQ Migrants", first appeared on
nowthisnews.com.
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