Towards citizenship : experiences of seeking asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity in the United States

Abstract

What is the experience like for LGBT Asylum Seekers in the United States? How can we conceive a sense of citizenship belonging among this population? For LGBT asylum seekers in the United States, the notion of gaining formal status as a refugee and ultimately U.S. citizenship is often a long, challenging process. An extended waiting time for asylum adjudication exasperates gaps in protection within an overall system of laws and policies that lean toward heteronormative - often unwelcoming or discriminatory - definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity. As such, these hurdles are not simply administratively remedied. They are meaningful conditions that restrict rights and ultimately a fundamental sense of citizenship belong. I argue that we can define a unique notion of transnational citizenship among LGBT asylum seekers who are caught between oppressive and unequitable formal institutions. Drawing from existing migration theory and citizenship studies, I claim that LGBT asylum seekers may form a sense of transnational citizenship that is not linked to a habitual physical crossing of national boundaries, but rather is concerned with the formation of enclaves of closely-knit LGBT sub-diaspora communities with the United States.