Pat on the Back

I hate to pat myself on the back... Yeah, I know. Who am I kidding? I actually do like to pat myself on the back a little bit. This one is really pat-worthy though. I don't know if y'all, my faithful readers, remember but back in August I had a political asylum hearing that got pushed back to December. Well, I had that yesterday. My client was a young gay man from Guatemala that had endured vicious insults (almost since he could walk), frequent beatings (one so bad that he ended up in the hospital), attempted rape, death threats, and otherwise general and constant harassment because of his sexuality. At the tender age of 22 and after one beating and death threat too many at the hands of an anti-gay gang in Guatemala, he fled to the U.S. For three years he waded through the U.S. justice system until yesterday when I was able to help him gain political asylum. Finally, he's able to legally and freely live and work in this country and he's free to express his sexuality. Yeah! Sometimes being a lawyer feels REALLY good. :)