Advocates have long observed that sexual minority women are treated less favorably than sexual minority men under US asylum law. However, there has been little empirical examination of these claims in a US context. We offer the first systematic comparative empirical analysis of 199 asylum decisions for cisgender sexual minorities. Using quantitative metrics to contextualize in-depth qualitative analysis, we show that even when cisgender sexual minority men and women face very similar types of violence, women’s claims are adjudicated differently. This is particularly stark in courts’ treatment of sexual violence but is also evident in determinations of generalized persecution and individuals’ sexualities. When women attempt to use laws that are structured around straight, white, Western male perspectives and experiences, their pathways are limited and sometimes nonexistent. Although the flexibility in this area of asylum law has allowed many types of new claims, these changes have mostly benefited those assigned male at birth, and this surface malleability has ultimately worked to maintain law as a regulatory structure. Even with seemingly progressive changes in asylum law, the law itself continues to uphold race, gender, and sexuality as durable social structures and does little to ameliorate inequalities along these axes of social difference.

中文翻译：

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交叉隐形：种族、性别、性取向和美国庇护法中对性少数女性的抹杀

倡导者长期以来一直观察到，根据美国庇护法，性少数女性的待遇不如性少数男性。然而，在美国的背景下，对这些主张的实证研究很少。我们对 199 项针对顺性别性少数群体的庇护决定进行了首次系统比较实证分析。使用定量指标来进行深入的定性分析，我们表明，即使当顺性别性少数男性和女性面临非常相似的暴力类型时，女性的主张也会受到不同的裁决。这在法院对性暴力的处理中尤为明显，但在普遍迫害和个人性取向的确定中也很明显。当女性试图使用围绕异性恋、白人、西方男性观点和经验构建的法律时，他们的途径是有限的，有时甚至不存在。尽管庇护法这一领域的灵活性允许许多类型的新索赔，但这些变化主要有利于那些出生时被分配为男性的人，这种表面可塑性最终有助于维持法律作为一种监管结构。即使庇护法看似取得了进步，但该法律本身继续将种族、性别和性行为视为持久的社会结构，并无助于改善这些社会差异轴上的不平等。