Support Gay Honduran Couple Resettling in USA
Donation protected
In Short
Javier and Alexis are a young gay couple from Honduras looking to start a new life in the U.S. They both speak good English and were doing relatively well in their country, but they ran afoul of gangs who wanted to utilize their language skills to sell drugs and wanted to sexually abuse them. Having received multiple death threats and no help from the police (they were told they deserved this fate as they were gay), they fled their country with only what they could carry. Having braved the arduous journey through Guatemala and Mexico, they are now living in San Diego as they request asylum. They both have very good prospects of being productive U.S. citizens – they plan to continue their education so that they can take on careers in advocating for civil rights for LGBT Latinos here and in Honduras.
They have an apartment, but are looking for assistance with furnishings as well as monthly expenses:
Assistance with furnishings: $300
Monthly Expenses: $600 (food, bus passes, phone, etc.) x 12 = $7,200
TOTAL = $7,500
We’re looking for funding for one year, after which they hopefully will have their work permits.
Thank you for your consideration!
In Their Own Words
We are Javier and Alexis, a gay migrant couple from Honduras.
Being gay in Honduras is like being born doomed to never be happy. For the macho culture of Honduras, being a macho man is a source of pride. Playing soccer, having many girlfriends in adolescence, dressing and acting and talking in a manly way, getting rough jobs and dominating women in marriage, are the expectations of society in general. Displaying behaviors contrary to these, are considered a shame and even a curse.
Society, Religion, Gangs, and even the Government itself - all see homosexuality as a plague that must be eradicated immediately. Ever since we were children, although we did not understand why, we suffered terrible physical punishment from our parents because they noticed our homosexual tendency. “You are going to be a man with blows!” - it still resonates in our memory.
As we grew up, the worse the suffering became. In school, we suffered bullying, homophobic insults and even on several occasions beating by men because they noticed our little different behavior. The social pressure only grew more over the years as the time came when people expected us to have girlfriends. In the workplace, co-workers made fun of us for not being seen with a woman.
But worst of all, our dream of meeting someone whom we can love seemed forbidden and impossible. We even hated ourselves for being gay. But Love is a feeling that knows no barriers. When we met, we felt that connection, that inexplicable spark and we knew that it was our turn to be happy.
We knew it would be very difficult, that we would have to hide our love, but we would not give up, we would try to be happy. We started our relationship and went to live together. To avoid danger, we said that we were only friends who rented together. But it is too difficult to go unnoticed in a country where they notice when you are an adult male and have no girlfriend.
A homophobic neighbor who belonged to the Honduran Armed Forces realized that we were a gay couple and he began to make death threats. He used his influences and connections with the government to try to kill us with impunity. We experienced three assassination attempts and in one of them, they even took pictures to find us wherever we went. The police would not help us and blamed what was happening to us was because we were gay.
We had to escape from our country, abandoning all our belongings and our relatives to survive and be who we really are. We love each other and we want to have the opportunity to be happy without being killed for who we are. We are currently asking for asylum from the United States, but starting from scratch is very hard, we have difficulty getting food and to meet our basic needs since we don't have a work permit yet, and we don't have relatives here either.
If you wish to help us with a contribution to help us get by while we settle in this new country, we will thank you forever. Thank you very much for the time spent reading our story.
Javier and Alexis are a young gay couple from Honduras looking to start a new life in the U.S. They both speak good English and were doing relatively well in their country, but they ran afoul of gangs who wanted to utilize their language skills to sell drugs and wanted to sexually abuse them. Having received multiple death threats and no help from the police (they were told they deserved this fate as they were gay), they fled their country with only what they could carry. Having braved the arduous journey through Guatemala and Mexico, they are now living in San Diego as they request asylum. They both have very good prospects of being productive U.S. citizens – they plan to continue their education so that they can take on careers in advocating for civil rights for LGBT Latinos here and in Honduras.
They have an apartment, but are looking for assistance with furnishings as well as monthly expenses:
Assistance with furnishings: $300
Monthly Expenses: $600 (food, bus passes, phone, etc.) x 12 = $7,200
TOTAL = $7,500
We’re looking for funding for one year, after which they hopefully will have their work permits.
Thank you for your consideration!
In Their Own Words
We are Javier and Alexis, a gay migrant couple from Honduras.
Being gay in Honduras is like being born doomed to never be happy. For the macho culture of Honduras, being a macho man is a source of pride. Playing soccer, having many girlfriends in adolescence, dressing and acting and talking in a manly way, getting rough jobs and dominating women in marriage, are the expectations of society in general. Displaying behaviors contrary to these, are considered a shame and even a curse.
Society, Religion, Gangs, and even the Government itself - all see homosexuality as a plague that must be eradicated immediately. Ever since we were children, although we did not understand why, we suffered terrible physical punishment from our parents because they noticed our homosexual tendency. “You are going to be a man with blows!” - it still resonates in our memory.
As we grew up, the worse the suffering became. In school, we suffered bullying, homophobic insults and even on several occasions beating by men because they noticed our little different behavior. The social pressure only grew more over the years as the time came when people expected us to have girlfriends. In the workplace, co-workers made fun of us for not being seen with a woman.
But worst of all, our dream of meeting someone whom we can love seemed forbidden and impossible. We even hated ourselves for being gay. But Love is a feeling that knows no barriers. When we met, we felt that connection, that inexplicable spark and we knew that it was our turn to be happy.
We knew it would be very difficult, that we would have to hide our love, but we would not give up, we would try to be happy. We started our relationship and went to live together. To avoid danger, we said that we were only friends who rented together. But it is too difficult to go unnoticed in a country where they notice when you are an adult male and have no girlfriend.
A homophobic neighbor who belonged to the Honduran Armed Forces realized that we were a gay couple and he began to make death threats. He used his influences and connections with the government to try to kill us with impunity. We experienced three assassination attempts and in one of them, they even took pictures to find us wherever we went. The police would not help us and blamed what was happening to us was because we were gay.
We had to escape from our country, abandoning all our belongings and our relatives to survive and be who we really are. We love each other and we want to have the opportunity to be happy without being killed for who we are. We are currently asking for asylum from the United States, but starting from scratch is very hard, we have difficulty getting food and to meet our basic needs since we don't have a work permit yet, and we don't have relatives here either.
If you wish to help us with a contribution to help us get by while we settle in this new country, we will thank you forever. Thank you very much for the time spent reading our story.
Organizer
Dave Weir
Organizer
San Diego, CA
