From: rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 21:42:04 -0600 (CST) Subject: CLINTON IN COSTA RICA CLINTON IN COSTA RICA: A SOLITARY BOYCOTT Richard Stern, Ph.D. SAN JOSE; Wednesday, May 7th: My President is coming to visit, but I will not be at the airport, waving the flag. When President Clintonīs plane touches down here in San José, Costa Rica this evening, I will boycott the event. My absence will undoubtedly go quite unnoticed, but it is about as much as I can do. I have lived here for the last 9 years, working in various programs related to prevention of AIDS, human rights etc. I am a legal resident here, but I am also a US citizen. My close ties back home are with friends and family in San Diego, the Midwest, and Baltimore. For six of my years here, I have been sharing most of my time with Victor, a Costa Rican factory worker. I donīt define our relationship as "lover" or even "significant other." I donīt like labels, and our relationship continues to change and evolve withthe years. I have always spoken with Victor about my desire to share with him my closest friends and family back home, as well as my country itself, and all the memories and possibilities that it offers. Victor earns very little as a factory worker, less than $300 monthly, but I have offered to pay theplane fare for a visit to the US during one of our vacations. Other expenses would be minimal since we could stay with family and friends. But every year Victor has gone to the US Embassy here in San Jose to try to get a tourist visa to be able to accompany me on my annual trip home. And every year, his visa application has been turned down. The policy in this embassy is that you have to have a substantial bank account, and/or be the owner of a business,and be "married with children," in order to guarantee that you will return, that you will not try to become an illegal alien. It is of no importance to those who issue the visas that I have written a letter indicating that I will be traveling with Victor and that we have no interest in staying in the United States. The only factors they take into account are personal wealth and marital status. But he is single and poor. Rich and heterosexual. Like a parent begining to educate its child, our government starts the socialization process the minute a foreigner lines to get up a visa. Suggestions have been offered from friends here and back home, but each one involves a lie of some sort. I could deposit $10,000 in Victorīs bank account (if I had it) and the Consular officials might accept that. Or I could put my home here in his name, to see if that would get him a visa. Or Victor could find a North American woman willing to marry him as a "human rights" favor. Victorīs first lesson would certainly be, "if you lie in the right way, you can get certain things from the US government." In any case, this means of getting a visa has never appealed to me or to Victor What I donīt understand is why there is no avenue for due process. I am a U.S. citizen living abroad, involved in a relationship of importance to me with an honest, hardworking Costa Rican citizen, and I am asking for permission for this person to spend two weeks with me in my country, sharing the world from which I came. Why am I (or Victor) not entitled to due process, to sit with an official and explain our purpose and have the decision made on the merits of the situation? (Richard Stern is the Health Coordinator of the Costa Rican gay/lesbian Association Triangulo Rosa. Tel/fax: 506-223-3964: Apartado 366-2200 Coronado, Costa Rica. This article can be reprinted or reposted.)