Opinion ID: 4522448
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Melgar’s Experience

Text: Melgar began to identify as gay when he was a young boy. As he grew into adolescence, gang members started noticing and harassing him. Around age thirteen, he was raped by five men, whom he identified as members of MS-13 or “Mara MS,” a major Salvadoran gang, because of their tattoos and clothes. AR73. The men threatened to kill him if he told the police, so he kept quiet. He believes he was targeted by these men because he is gay. After the rape, he became depressed and attempted suicide. A few years later, Melgar moved with a gay friend, who was also being harassed by the gangs, to another municipality about three hours away. Soon, another major gang, “Mara 18,” began to sexually harass the two young men with vulgar taunting and touching. AR76. Melgar explained that the gang members “quickly noted that we were gay and they assaulted and abused us.” AR371. He believes that gangs single out gay men like him based on societal stereotypes associated with their appearance and mannerisms: “You can distinguish us by the way we walk, we act, we dress. It is different from [others].” AR74 (Tr. 23:11-12). He stated: “Everywhere I go people know I’m gay because [it] is not something I hide.” AR363. Hoping to escape the ongoing abuse, Melgar returned to live with his parents. At first, he was able to avoid the gangs, but eventually MS-13 identified him, and the harassment continued—worse than before. On one occasion, after a gay friend was raped 3 and murdered, left dead with a tree branch “in his private part,” AR78, gang members followed Melgar and warned him that he would be killed like his friend unless he submitted to their sexual demands. Melgar and his friends reported some of these incidents to the police, but the police did not take them seriously. The police would tell them that these things happen to gay men because they are “looking for it because that is what [they] like[].” AR371. When he was twenty-five years old, Melgar married a woman who was aware of his sexuality, and they started a family. He hoped that the marriage would end the abuse and discrimination, because it would show that he was a “real” man. AR81. It did not work. The discrimination and abuse continued. Eventually, gang members started to demand “rent,” a common form of monetary extortion in gang-controlled areas. AR81. They demanded a higher than usual rent from Melgar “just for the fact of being gay.” AR372. In 2005, gang members came to his house with guns and knives demanding more rent. When he was unable to pay, they threatened to rape and kill him in front of his wife and children. Melgar fled to the United States and entered without authorization. About three years later, Melgar was detained and removed to El Salvador. As soon as he arrived in early 2009, MS-13 gang members came to his home and demanded the rent that they claimed he owed them. They pointed a gun to his head and gave him hours to come up with the money. Again, they threatened to rape and kill him in front of his family if he did not pay. The next day, Melgar fled to the United States for a second time. 4