Boston-based immigration reporter Philip Marcelo and photographer Steven Senne teamed up for an AP scoop on an American first: A Massachusetts church that supports immigrants has opened a new home for LGTB asylum seekers fleeing their countries because of their sexual orientation.
Marcelo has cultivated an impressive network of sources in the course of robust beat reporting in New England. Those contacts paid off when a lawyer who had previously connected Marcelo with a client for a national story reached out with a tip on the community of LGBT refugees who’d fled government-sanctioned brutality in their homelands because of their sexual orientation and identification. That set in motion considerable discussion about what these asylum seekers from Jamaica, Uganda and other LGBT-hostile nations would be willing to say — and whether they’d consent to be photographed.
Marcelo and Senne found subjects willing to open up. The result was an evocative, nuanced, unique and highly visual package that shed light on a little-reported aspect of immigration. Senne’s dramatically lit portraits further elevated the work.
Marcelo’s story is the latest in a series demonstrating that compelling narratives around immigration can be found, and told, far from the southern border.