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A Vancouver man was denied entry into the United States after a US Customs and Border Patrol officer read his profiles on the gay hookup app Scruff and the website BBRT.
[...] André, a 30-year-old Vancouver set decorator who declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation from US Customs, describes the experience as "humiliating."[He] says he was planning to visit his boyfriend, who was working in New Orleans. But when he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October, he was selected for secondary inspection, where an officer took his phone, computer and other possessions, and demanded the passwords for his devices.
"I didn't know what to do. I was scared, so I gave them the password and then I sat there for at least an hour or two. I missed my flight," André says. "He came back and just started grilling me. 'Is this your email?' and it was an email attached to a Craigslist account for sex ads. He asked me, 'Is this your account on Scruff? Is this you on BBRT?' I was like, 'Yes, this is me.'"
[...] "I could tell just by his nature that he had no intentions of letting me through. They were just going to keep asking me questions looking for something," he says. "So I asked for the interrogation to stop. I asked if I go back to Canada am I barred for life? He said no, so I accepted that offer."
A month later, André attempted to fly to New Orleans again. This time, he brought what he thought was ample proof that he was not a sex worker: letters from his employer, pay stubs, bank statements, a lease agreement and phone contracts to prove he intended to return to Canada.
When he went through secondary inspection at Vancouver airport, US Customs officers didn't even need to ask for his passwords — they were saved in their own system. But André had wiped his phone of sex apps, browser history and messages, thinking that would dispel any suggestion he was looking for sex work. Instead, the border officers took that as suspicious.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by lentilla on Monday February 27 2017, @09:27AM (3 children)
It may not be illegal to be homosexual in the US, but that doesn't mean that homosexuality is a desirable trait.
A civilised government should have no opinion regarding the desirability of homosexuality. It is; simply; none of their business.
It may be that I find redheads disgusting. That's fine (although, in truth, I'd live a happier life if I got over that particular hang-up - after all, it's a bit childish - it's not like a redhead has any choice in the matter). Whatever my personal opinion on the matter doesn't change the fact that it is not a government's job to police the fundamental construction of a human being. Judge someone by what they do, not who they are.
Much is made of that "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" - but what could be a greater personification of freedom than the freedom to be me: male, female, hetro or homo, or even (gasp!) redheaded?
"undesirable" is open to definition, and/or interpretation.
Well, it shouldn't be open to interpretation. That's what I meant by "singing from the same choir book" above. It's not even that hard: "Hello Sir, and why are you visiting the USA?" "I am here to visit a friend." "Welcome to the United States, Sir, y'all have a nice visit!" That conversation takes place thousands of time every day. This situation isn't special. It's so boringly normal.
Unless this law is reversed by Congress, our government has a mandate to prevent the immigration of potential terrorists from unfriendly regimes, specifically from the seven Muslim nations identified as terrorist sources.
Just checking here... you do know that homosexuals don't have to be Muslims, right? Well of course you do - it's just that we've been talking about a bigoted border agent and his embarrassingly incompetent change-of-command and now; suddenly; you seem to be talking about Muslims. Muslim terrorists to boot! I get the segue but the proximity of these two hot-button topics is disingenuous and clouds the issue under discussion.
I realise many people find the thought of homosexuality makes them uncomfortable. It's time for them to make peace within themselves. Homosexuality isn't going away - in fact it has always been with us - they only real difference is that we are being more honest with each other. If you find yourself being revolted by homosexuality, just stop and replace "gay person" with "red-headed person", or "short person". Think how stupid that sounds. Now take a good long look in the mirror. Keep practising and it gets easier. You aren't going to "catch the gay disease" by being in close proximity, your sons aren't going to "turn gay" unless they were gay to start with. Shakespeare says it better that I: "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" [mit.edu] Gay or straight, we are each other's brothers and sisters. There are bigger issues to worry about.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 27 2017, @10:55AM (1 child)
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/28/travel/ben-gurion-worlds-safest-airport-tel-aviv/ [cnn.com]
Profiling. In point of fact, a security (customs) agent doesn't actually need a reason to turn someone around at the border. If a particular border agent grows suspicious of someone, for ANY REASON, he can take one or more of many different actions, including denying entry.
Right or wrong, it works for Israel. It can be made to work in the US, if we pull our heads out of the sand, and stop pretending that we can't know anything about a person just by looking at him.
Now, what seems funny to me is, much of the US population insists that we always err on the side of safety - then turns around and says that we must maintain open borders, safety be damned.
Always remember this: If you go to any country in the world, attempting to gain entry for any reason at all - that country can deny you entry, for any reason at all. That includes the US of A. We don't really need a reason to tell someone they have wasted their time, they can't stay, they have to go home. If I have a house full of people, and I grow tired of their company, I can tell them all that it's time to go home - and I need not give them a reason. That even goes for my own brothers and sisters, my sons, anyone who doesn't live here, in my home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:14PM
> Right or wrong, it works for Israel. It can be made to work in the US,
Your nihilism knows no bounds in service to your bigotry.
The US's situation is not even remotely like Israel. As the resident ISIS collaborator it obviously serves your purposes for the US to end up in a state of constant war and apartheid. So fuck you and your trumpanzee bullshit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday February 27 2017, @12:25PM
A civilised government should have no opinion regarding the desirability of homosexuality. It is; simply; none of their business.
While I agree, I don't think that's really the issue. A civilised country requires the rule of law as a prerequisite. If you are detained or prevented from movement by any kind of law enforcement officer, then they should be able to point to the specific law and to the fact that it is universally applied (at least, to the degree humanly possible within budget constraints). If he is being denied entry because he is homosexual, then all other known homosexuals should also be denied entry. If not, then he's being denied entry because, basically, someone in a position of authority doesn't like his face. At that point, you no longer have the rule of law, you have the rule of petty despots.
sudo mod me up