Ask Gadling: Your name/nationality/religion/race makes the locals hostile

Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.

Back to original post

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-12-2010 @ 10:19AM

pauls98 said...

Oddly enough, I have traveled to and enjoyed every continent on this great planet except Antartica. I have felt welcome everywhere but have time and time again been harrassed by the US Border folks when re-entering my own country, the United States of America. I live in Maine and have had trouble at the border crossing in Calais and Jackman more than once. One time my partner and I were separated by the officers in Calais and the car was torn apart. The questions flew, insinuations of going to Canada for drug use and transport, etc. I am a medical professional (CRNA) and have no desire to risk my job or career to smoke a joint... Since we had only one small suitcase for our weekend away, we were made to feel VERY uncomfortable as a gay couple--and that is when the heat really got turned up. I wrote letters to my congressioal representatives and the supervising field office in Boston. Surprise: everything was as it should have been...the border patrol would NEVER discriminate. Well, I am 46 years old and had never felt singled out or discriminated againt...until trying to come home after a long weekend away in Prince Edward Island.

10-12-2010 @ 11:35AM

Rick said...

I too have only been harrassed while trying to reenter the US as a native citizen. I was detained for a few hours coming back from Germany because I was on probation at the time, despite having all the proper paperwork, notes from both the judge and my probation officer, and hadn't gotten so much as a speeding ticket in about 4 years. Had no troubles travelling all across Europe, but when I come home--uh oh! Looks like we have a problem! *rollseyes*

Add your comments

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.