The latest cool project for the resettlement industry is the push to admit gays and lesbians from countries, like Russia and certain Muslim countries, where they are hated. Here is an essay from a NYC Russian political activist, Masha Gessen, mostly about how great it is to be in America, to get stuff, and to get married.
You can read the whole thing, but I thought a bit of it was very informative. Check out ‘Immigration Equality’ here where they brag about being behind the campaign to lift the HIV/AIDS bar to admission to the US and report that they are all for “comprehensive immigration reform.”
From the Washington Post (hat tip: Joanne):
There are many of us. No one knows how many exactly, but Immigration Equality, the biggest organization working on behalf of LGBT asylum-seekers in this country, hired a full-time Russian-speaking paralegal last winter — and still the wait for an intake interview can be weeks or months.
How to get stuff:
One of the most prized recipes exchanged among new refugees, second perhaps to securing a good immigration lawyer, is how to get a New York state ID. It involves opening bank accounts, engaging in a certain number of financial transactions and traveling to the outer boroughs on a regular basis — because not all bank branches will open an account for someone with a foreign passport and without a Social Security number. Refugees also coach one another on how to get an apartment through a co-signer, how to get your emergency-room bill adjusted down and where to find free English classes. [Free to whom? Someone pays for the free stuff, for the re-adjusted emergency-room bill!—ed]
For $25 bucks and an expired tourist visa you can get married:
And then there’s the one place in New York City where you can get a gorgeous bumazhka — a piece of paper — recognizing you and a partner as a married couple. You can use your Russian passport with its tourist visa. Hell, the visa can even be expired. You need one witness. Pay $25, and a city official will say to you: “By the powers vested in me by the State of New York, I now pronounce you married. You can seal your union with a kiss.” Then you kiss. In public, safely.
There is more, read it all here (if you want to).
Here is a post we wrote in December of last year about Russians coming across the Mexican border, claiming to be gay and asking for asylum.