Advocate NL 8/21/26

Hello and Happy Friday! Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez here, back in your inbox with an in-depth piece from The Advocate's Christopher Wiggins on Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center.

There, Christopher gives us a stark glimpse into life for queer people held in ICE custody.

Advocates who visited Pauline Nadege Binam, a 36-year-old queer Cameroonian immigrant and mother of a U.S. citizen teenager, found her exhausted and fearful, Christopher writes — but determined to hold on to hope.

Binam is in immigration detention after previously spending time in custody, and she says she is afraid to seek medical care because of a traumatic experience during an earlier detention. She has also been separated from her daughter while fighting to remain in the U.S.; advocates warn that deportation to Cameroon could put her at risk because the country criminalizes consensual same-sex relationships.

Even the visit itself underscored the barriers inside Stewart. Organizer Noël Heatherland and Timoria McQueen Saba, the Democratic nominee for Georgia House District 68 and a maternal health advocate, said security procedures ate into their allotted visitation time, while a third member of the group, Georgia House candidate Bentley Hudgins, whom Christopher profiled earlier, was turned away because of an expired driver's license.

Still, Binam told her visitors that knowing people outside the detention center had not forgotten her gave her hope. “She said it gives her hope to know that she’s not alone,” Heatherland told The Advocate.

If you enjoy receiving exclusives like these, consider becoming an Advocate supporter! For as little as $5 a month, your donation will help journalists like Christopher continue providing the top LGBTQ+ journalism you receive in your inbox weekly.

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Advocate NL 8/21/26

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