3 Foreign Gays Seek U.S. Asylum : Homosexuality: A Nicaraguan, a Russian and an Iranian say they fear persecution in their home countries because of their sexual orientation.

In what advocates describe as potentially precedent-setting cases, three foreign homosexuals are requesting asylum in the United States, saying they fear persecution in their home countries because they are gay.

The asylum petitions were filed in the past month by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national gay-rights organization that is representing a Nicaraguan gay man with AIDS who lives in Los Angeles, a Russian lesbian residing in San Francisco and an Iranian gay in New York.

“What we are saying . . . is that gay men and lesbians are an identifiable social group, which is the subject of persecution, official and otherwise, in many countries of the world,” said J ) Craig Fong, the director of Lambda’s western regional office in Los Angeles.

Under U.S. immigration law, asylum may be granted to those with a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries because of their race, religion, nationality, political affiliation or membership in a particular social group.

Rosemary Melville, director of the Los Angeles Asylum Office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said she believes similar asylum claims have been made before, but she was not aware of their outcome.

As for Lambda’s interest in having gays and lesbians defined as a persecuted social group, Melville added: “There is no clear definition anywhere of what a social group would be. . . . The burden is on the applicant.”

Attorneys for those seeking asylum say their clients’ home countries are actively hostile to homosexuals and that at least two of the petitioners were harassed by authorities before fleeing to the United States. Nicaragua considers homosexual activity to be criminal. Under Islamic law in Iran, gays can be executed. And though sexual activity between women is not specifically outlawed in Russia, Fong said Alla Pitcherskaia was arrested and beaten various times for being a lesbian or for demonstrating for gay rights.

Jacobo Rivas, a 29-year-old Nicaraguan, would be further ostracized in his native country because he has AIDS, said David Illions, one of his attorneys.

Peter Schey, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization specializing in refugee and asylum policy, predicted that the claims would get a chilly reception at the INS.

“These applications will likely not be well received by the agency,” Schey said. “But the agency is just a stepping stone to the federal courts, and there I think they will receive more serious consideration.”