Migrants can still request asylum based on persecution because of their gender identity and/or their sexual orientation. Pedro Luis Perez arrived at the northern Mexico border in early 2019 looking for safety and asylum in the United States, but instead he spent about 10 months waiting in Tijuana where he said he felt threatened because of his sexual orientation. Perez was 13 when his parents threw him out of his family home in Guatemala for being gay. He spent much of his youth living on the streets, hunkering down under bridges when it rained. “My family doesn’t love me,” the 27-year-old asylum seeker said.