An article -- http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-11-26/news/border-crossers/ -- in this week's SF Weekly (a San Francisco alt-weekly) says that in the federal court's Ninth Circuit (California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii), transgender identity is legally sufficient to allow an undocumented resident ("illegal alien") to claim asylum from persecution in their home country,

if she does so within a year of entry into the U.S., and that nearly all such claimants have succeeded in avoiding deportation. The article's immediate focus is Latina TG sex workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it appears that its application would be somewhat broader -- including, for example, most theocracies worldwide -- and would of course extend to anyone regardless of intended occupation.

Eric