Court Opinion

ID: 9498560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:20:41.228101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:54.234513
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I cannot agree with the majority that William Kimumwe has not experienced past persecution on account of his sexual orientation, nor can I accept that he has no well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future on account of his sexual orientation2 if returned to Zimbabwe. Thus, I respectfully dissent.
The IJ’s conclusion that Kimumwe has not established eligibility for asylum is simply not supported by the record. At the outset, I take issue with the IJ’s statement that Kimumwe presented no objective evidence to confirm his homosexuality. It is unclear what type of evidence would satisfy the IJ. Kimumwe testified he was openly gay. He stated he realized he was gay when he was seven years old. He *324presented a letter from a Kenyan orphanage administrator, Kemba Andrew Waakl, indicating that Kimumwe was gay. After carefully perusing the record, I have found no evidence whatsoever that would contradict Kimumwe’s claimed sexual orientation and accept that he is openly gay.
The IJ next discounted Kimumwe’s evidence of persecution, opining that Ki-mumwe “was not punished because of his status as a homosexual, but rather because of the apparently coercive circumstances in which he engaged in sexual activity.” (R. at 78.) This is a mischaracterization of the record. When Kimumwe was twelve, he engaged in his first homosexual experience at school with a classmate. School administrators found out and expelled Kimumwe. The IJ emphasized that Kimumwe stated he “lured” the other boy into sexual conduct. Kimumwe explained at the hearing that this meant he convinced the other boy to have sex, not that he coerced the boy.
When Kimumwe was sixteen, he started at the College of Bulawayo on a scholarship to study computer engineering. He became attracted to another male student named Ohomutso. On one occasion, Ki-mumwe and Ohomutso drank too much and had sex. The next day, people found out, and Ohomutso became ashamed. On the advice of classmates, Ohomutso reported this incident to school administrators, who then called police. Kimumwe was arrested. He asked why he was being arrested, and the police told Kimumwe it was because he was gay, and because it was illegal to be gay in public. Kimumwe was held for two months without any charges filed against him, and without any hearing oh his fate. Then the head of Kimumwe’s orphanage arrived at the jail and bribed the police officials to release Kimumwe. She asked the officers to give Kimumwe some type of document indicating that he had been released so that he would not be harassed by local authorities. Kimumwe was provided with a handwritten note explaining that he had been released because there was not enough evidence to charge him with sodomy or sexual assault. With regard to this incident, the IJ apparently believed that Kimumwe had taken advantage of Ohomutso by getting him drunk for the purpose of having sex. At the hearing, however, Kimumwe clarified that they were both drunk, and that he did not compel Ohomutso to have sex in any way. Importantly, the IJ also overlooked Kimumwe’s unrefuted testimony that the officers who arrested him made it clear he was arrested for being gay, not for having sex. Thus, the IJ’s finding that Kimumwe had not established past persecution based on his status as an openly gay man is not supported by substantial evidence.
Similarly, Kimumwe presented sufficient evidence that he had a reasonable apprehension that he would be subjected to future persecution if returned to Zimbabwe. Kimumwe, in referring to the government in his asylum application, stated that “they search for people like me” and kill them. (R. at 323-24.) This is consistent with the exhibits presented in his case. According to State Department reports on country conditions, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been in power since 1980, and rules a country whose security forces have committed “numerous, serious human rights abuses.” (R. at 215.) In 1995, Mugabe publicly referred to gays as “sodomites and perverts” and declared that homosexual people had “no rights at all.” (Id. at 196.) Mugabe’s anti-gay rhetoric became stronger soon thereafter, attacking Britain’s tolerance of homosexuals, whom Mugabe believed were “worse than dogs and pigs.” (Id. at 326.) In speeches, Mugabe has promised that Zimbabwe will do “everything in its power” to combat homosexuality, (id.), and has described homo*325sexual relations as “an abomination and decadence,” (id. at 270). Mugabe remains in power today.
Our court ought not sanction the return of an openly gay man to a country whose leader has vowed to rid the country of homosexuals. Zimbabwe’s government’s past conduct, both generally and with specific reference to Kimumwe, indicates an intent to farther persecute him on the basis of his sexual orientation. Kimumwe has established that he has suffered past persecution and has a reasonable fear of future persecution on account of being openly gay. Because I would reverse the IJ’s contrary finding, I respectfully dissent.

. It is beyond question that a person's sexual orientation may form the basis for a legitimate asylum claim. Matter of Toboso-Alfonso, 20 I. & N. Dec. 819, 820-23 (BIA 1990), adopted as precedent in all future proceedings, Att’y Gen. Order No. 1895-94 (June 19, 1994); Hernandez-Montiel v. INS, 225 F.3d 1084, 1093-94 (9th Cir.2000) (granting withholding of removal to an alien who established a clear probability of future persecution based on his feminine sexual identity); Molathwa v. Ashcroft, 390 F.3d 551, 554 (8th Cir.2004) (“We will assume, for purposes of Molathwa’s appeal, homosexuals are a particular social group eligible for relief.").