Lives in Transit by Vogt Wendy A

Lives in Transit by Vogt Wendy A

Author:Vogt, Wendy A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520298545
Publisher: University of California Press


Sexual Violence against Male and LGBTQ migrants

While there has been significant public attention to the types of violence experienced by women along the journey, few have addressed gendered forms of violence experienced by male, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) migrants. As mentioned briefly in the introduction, sexual violence against male and LGBTQ migrants is also a reality of the journey, albeit one spoken of mostly in whispers and through euphemisms. For some men, sexual humiliation occurs during strip searches by state agents, as described in chapter 2. But more violent forms of sexual assault also take place. “You know men who have been raped, Wendy,” Padre José once told me. “You know them and they have confided in me, but I won’t tell you who they are.” Mayra also reiterated to me that it was not only female migrants who were raped, but male migrants as well.

One person who did open up to me about his sexual assault was Jasiel. Jasiel openly identified as a gay male. His fingernails were painted cherry red, his eyebrows plucked thin, his skin shiny with lotion. A rosary of wooden beads hung around his neck. He walked with a slight limp; he had a bad knee. Jasiel was also victim of kidnapping, an escapee, a survivor.

At Casa Guadalupe, Jasiel kept to himself. When everyone else was sitting in the living room, lingering after meals, you could find him alone in the dorm room. While he was always polite and smiled when I passed him, I knew that tensions were high between him and others at the shelter. The two men he arrived with claimed that Jasiel was really a pollero. He had a visa to be in Mexico, and there was no reason he should be at the shelters except to recruit migrants to smuggle, they argued. One of the men went as far as to suggest Jasiel wanted to be kidnapped because he wanted to have sex with men.

Unlike some of the other shelters, at Casa Guadalupe, the shelter workers strongly encouraged the migrants to stay inside during the day and at night. Yet one evening Jasiel announced he was going out. He was dressed in cutoff jean shorts and a tight shirt that showed his midriff. Someone murmured, “What does he expect will happen to him if he goes out like that?” People who transgress social boundaries are commonly perceived to have invited the violence they experience.5 One of the other volunteers, who also happened to be gay, gave me a sidelong glance and rolled his eyes.

It was several days before I would have the opportunity to speak with Jasiel himself. I remember the day well. It was Thanksgiving in the United States. “Today is the Día de Acción de Gracias,” one of the other migrants told me, proudly demonstrating his knowledge of U.S. culture. It was early evening, past comida, so I was surprised to see Jasiel in the living room eating by himself. But he was not eating food from the shelter.



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