Since 1994, sexual orientation has been grounds for asylum in the United States.

That's when former US Attorney General Janet Reno ruled in a case that persecution based on sexual orientation could be given consideration.

Until recently, that reason was used rarely, and such cases represent only a fraction of all asylum cases.

But now immigrant and gay activists say more asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are citing sexual orientation as reasons for seeking asylum.

Activists say the asylum seekers are escaping rape, persecution, violence and threats of death in places where homosexuality is either outlawed or strongly, socially shunned.

Jamaican asylum winner

Last year, Immigration Equality, a New York-based nonprofit group that helps gay clients with immigration cases, won 55 asylum cases using sexual orientation as grounds -- a record for the organization, said the group's legal director Victoria Neilson.

The Associated Press (AP) carried the story of Nathaniel
Cunningham, a 32-year-old gay Jamaican man who last year won his bid to win asylum in the US.

It quoted Mr Cunningham as telling how an angry mob gathered on his lawn hurling rocks and bricks and calling he and his lover "batty boys" - a Jamaican slang term for gay.

Mr Cunningham, who fled to Worcester, Massachusetts, said he decided to file for asylum after working for a few years in the United States on a work visa.

He conducted research online but couldn't find an immigration group to help him with the case.

It wasn't until Mr Cunningham connected with Jozefina Lantz, the director of immigrant services at Lutheran Social Services, that he gained support.

After winning their cases, Mr Cunningham has become an advocate for other asylum-seekers by giving them counselling and directing them toward legal help.

In Worcester, for example, he has helped three other Jamaicans win asylum with the legal help provided by the Lutheran Social Services' "LGBT Human Rights Protection Project."