Kanadas Federal Court gewährt lesbischer US-Soldatin Asylverfahren

Apropos Diskriminierung von Homosexuellen in den USA – hier ein aktueller Fund:

Eine 21-jährige Soldatin der US-Armee war desertiert und nach Kanada geflohen, weil sie wegen ihrer sexuellen Orientierung von Kollegen und Vorgesetzten bedroht und misshandelt wurde und um ihr Leben fürchtete. Die kanadischen Behörden hatten ihr Asyl verweigert. Diese Entscheidung hat der Federal Court jetzt für unzureichend erklärt und angeordnet, dass der Asylantrag gerichtlich überprüft werden muss.

Ein Auszug aus dem Urteil:

First, counsel for the applicant contended that the Board Member erred in speculating as to the isolated nature of Private Barry Winchell murder, which took place in 1999. This murder was clearly a watershed moment in the long struggle of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons to be fully accepted in the U.S. Army. On July 5, 1999, Private Winchell was brutally beaten to death with a baseball bat while sleeping outside his barracks room at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Soldiers later testified that Private Winchell had faced daily anti-gay harassment for more than four months prior to his murder, on the basis of rumors that he was gay (…)

There was simply no evidence before the Board Member to support his finding that the brutal murder of Private Winchell was an isolated incident, or that those who harass, threaten or physically harm or kill gays and lesbians in the military are severely punished. Quite to the contrary, the applicant submitted evidence that was to the opposite effect: namely, that the harassment and violent attacks on gays and lesbians in the Army is systemic and commonplace in the American military, and that immediate supervisors and unit commanders tolerate or are believed to tolerate that behaviour to some extent.