Tibetan Refugee:

Flight from violence and persecution – Tibetans find freedom in Brooklyn
To Phantsok Dhamchoe, 38, the Tibetan wilds are a far cry from the condominium-laden streets of Crown Heights in Brooklyn just east of Prospect Park, where he now lives in an apartment with four other Tibetans.
06/14/2007 – Courier-Life Publications – By Diana Britton

Gay Asylum:

Out and Safe: Fleeing Persecution Abroad, Gay Foreigners Flock to New York
She’s one of many immigrants seeking asylum in the United States on fairly new grounds: persecution due to her sexual orientation. Then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno 13 years ago established that this was grounds for asylum in the United States. Now such asylum [...]