(New York City) A gay HIV-positive man has been granted asylum after a group associated with the Columbia University Law School intervened in his case.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the grant of asylum this week after Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic took up the case.

“This case sheds light on the violence and abuse gay men and people living with HIV/AIDS face in Côte d’Ivoire,” said Prof. Suzanne Goldberg, who directs the Clinic.

Goldberg said that as a result of the victory the extensive documentation of conditions faced by gay and HIV-positive Ivoirians that the Clinic students compiled, other gay or HIV-positive asylum-seekers from the Ivory Coast will be helped.

The asylee, 32, arrived in the United States in January 2004. His application for asylum describes the personal violence and abuse he was subjected to because of his sexual orientation. He said that he had been raped and beaten by military and militia members and was subjected to constant verbal and physical abuse by his neighbors, classmates and his own father.

His application also described the lack of protection offered him at home in Ivory Coast, where police, too, participate in the persecution of gay people.

“I feel really happy and blessed that I was granted asylum, because I was not expecting it,” the asylee said in a statement provided by the law clinic.

“I am so happy that I can stay in the U.S. and live a happy and healthy life.”  He added, “I am so grateful for all of the hard work of the Clinic students, Professor Goldberg and Immigration Equality.”

Since this past September, five students from Columbia’s Sexuality and Gender Clinic have provided legal assistance to the asylee. Immigration Equality, a national organization focused on immigration rights for LGBT individuals, referred this asylum-seeker to the Clinic and provided important assistance on the case.

The Clinic students spent several months conducting interviews, drafting affidavits, researching country conditions, reaching out to HIV experts and filling out necessary forms to complete the asylum application.

The students also accompanied their client to the asylum office in Rosedale, New York, for his asylum interview, where student lawyers from the clinic asked follow-up questions and made a closing presentation to the asylum officer after the client’s testimony.

“We are thankful that our client will finally be able to live openly as a gay man, safe from government-sponsored persecution, and that he will be able to access the life-saving HIV medications that he would not have been able to obtain in Côte d’Ivoire,” said Dana Kaufman, a senior at Columbia who was part of the law clinic team.

“We hope that our client’s case will help combat the misperception that Côte d’Ivoire is a safe place for gay people, and will let other Ivoirians who were persecuted because of their sexual orientation know that they are not alone.”

The Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic began in September 2006 and currently has nine students. Under Goldberg’s guidance, students have worked on a wide range of projects, from constitutional litigation to legislative advocacy to immigration cases.