Refugee 'not gay enough' for Canada

The city's gay community and the Toronto Youth Cabinet are rising to the defence of a gay runaway from Nicaragua who faces deportation next Tuesday after losing his asylum claim because "he did not have any same-sex relationships."

Alvaro Antonio Orozco based his refugee claim on fears of homophobia and domestic abuse. He said he left Managua in 1998 at age 12 because he was regularly beaten with sticks and whips by an alcoholic father who threatened to "kill any child of his that was homosexual."

After a year hitchhiking through Central America, living off the kindness of strangers, Orozco, now 21, arrived in Texas. He was detained in a group home but left it for Toronto in January 2005, after learning Canada respects gay rights.

"Gay people in Latin America have to act straight to hide their (sexual) identity because people there are Catholic and are very conservative. I was afraid," the stocky construction worker said softly. "The (refugee) judge just didn't think I was gay enough and I didn't qualify to be gay."

Adjudicator Deborah Lamont, who conducted the Oct. 6, 2005, hearing from Calgary via videoconference, took issue with his lack of same-sex relationships during his six years in the U.S.