There is a really interesting story up on the Advocate site that takes the issue of immigration from a different perspective. It’s the story of a young gay man named Alvaro Orozco who ran away from Nicaragua at the tender age of 12 to escape the abuse he dealt with at home from his homophobic father.

Without his own remarkable energy, Orozco might not be in Canada—or anywhere. Raised by an alcoholic father who beat him daily for being gay, Orozco ran away from his home and family in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, in 1998, just before he turned 13. He hitchhiked up the Pan-American Highway through four countries and swam the Rio Grande river into Texas. Once in the United States, Orozco was held in detention centers in Texas and then bounced from Dallas to Miami to Buffalo until he reached Toronto in January 2005. There he filed for asylum on the grounds that he would be persecuted for being gay if he had to return to Nicaragua.

Orozco’s initial asylum claim was denied because the judge did not believe that Orozco was gay. The decision, currently being appealed, has garnered international attention, even reaching Managua, Nicaragua further putting Orozco at risk if he were forced to return to his home country.

Via / The Advocate