This Pride Month, Stand With Andry

“I think Pride Month is an opportunity to highlight his story even more,” Rep. Robert Garcia said about Andry Hernández Romero, the gay asylum-seeker unjustly purged to El Salvador by U.S. officials.

Pride Month is a time to celebrate the many LGBTQ immigrants who enrich and better our nation through their hopes, skills, and dreams. It’s also a time to stand with our LGBTQ immigrant neighbors, like Andry Hernández Romero, the gay asylum-seeker who was unjustly purged to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison by the Trump administration. It’s now been weeks since his advocates and loved ones have heard from him, or even know if he’s still alive.

In a June 9 letter to the State Department, more than 50 House members are expressing deep worry for his well-being and are calling on the administration to conduct a wellness check, give him access to attorneys, and immediately facilitate his release. After all, if the administration returned Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego García to the U.S. because it finally agreed the Supreme Court was right and he deserved due process, why hasn’t that been applied to Andry and other unjustly deported men?

“Mr. Hernández Romero’s family and lawyers have had no contact with him in more than a month,” lawmakers write. “His mother does not even know whether he is alive. Given both the well-documented concerns about conditions at CECOT and the history of anti-LGBTQI+ persecution in El Salvador, there is serious cause for concern about Mr. Hernández Romero’s well-being.”

Hernández Romero, a makeup artist, thought he’d found safety in America after being harassed by armed vigilantes aligned with the Venezuelan government. U.S. immigration officials agreed that he faced legitimate danger, determining “that his threats against him were credible, and that he had a real probability of winning an asylum claim,” his attorney, Lindsay Toczylowski, told 60 Minutes in April. 

Despite his legitimate asylum claims, Hernández Romero’s innocuous tattoos – crowns on each wrist, with the names of his parents underneath – were used to falsely portray him as a public safety threat, and he was disappeared to CECOT along with many other innocent men. The makeup artist was also purged to this foreign mega-prison with zero warning to his attorney or loved ones. 

“But Andry did appear in photos taken by Time magazine photographer Philip Holsinger, who was there when the Venezuelans arrived at CECOT,” 60 Minutes continued. “Holsinger told us he heard a young man say: ‘I'm not a gang member. I'm gay. I'm a stylist.’ And that he cried for his mother as he was slapped and had his head shaved.”

The letter from lawmakers notes that despite public pleas, the administration refuses to update attorneys, family members, and the public on Hernández Romero’s well-being.

But communities – and in particular the LGBTQ community – are making it clear they will not relent in the fight to bring Hernández Romero back home. Numerous Pride events have continued to shine a light on his case by naming him an honorary grand marshal, including the Pride by the Beach festival in Southern California and Queens Pride in New York City. 

“Andry’s story is one of unimaginable resilience, and his lived experience serves as a powerful reminder of why we continue to fight for liberation, dignity, and human rights for all,” said North County LGBTQ Resource Center Executive Director Max Disposti. “In appointing Andry as our grand marshal, we uplift his voice and the countless unheard voices of LGBTQ+ immigrants who are criminalized for simply existing. His story represents the intersection of queer liberation and immigrant justice, both of which are at the heart of our mission.”

“We honor Andry. We demand his release. We demand that Trump intercede and get Andry out of CECOT immediately,” said Queens Pride co-founder Daniel Dromm. “We will not give up until Andry is freed from that prison. This is an immigrant community — we stand up for our immigrants, we stand up for our LGBTQ people.” 

And Cleve Jones, a legendary AIDS and gay rights activist who was close to late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, has also spoken out in Andry’s defense, saying his “situation brings home to me something about the brutality and horror of what we are facing.”

Rep. Garcia, an openly gay member of Congress and himself an immigrant from Peru, told LGBTQ news outlet The Advocate “that the story remains underreported, particularly during Pride Month.” 

“This is a story that I think has captured the attention of a lot of folks across the country. Our community, others, and members of Congress are outraged, rightly so,” he told the outlet. “I think Pride Month is an opportunity to highlight his story even more. The more folks learn about it, the more they’ll put pressure on the administration and Homeland Security to do the right thing.”