Olivia Nabulwala's counting her blessings right about now. The Ugandan lesbian has been granted a stay of deportation after Minnesota's 8th Court of Appeals ruled the Board of Immigration Appeals acted inappropriately when it tried to deport the asylum seeker.

Things aren't so hot for Ugandan gays - just a few months back, the tabbie Red Pepper printed the names of "known homosexuals" and urged readers to track them down for some homophobic (in)justice. Nabulwala found herself in a similar situation, only her attackers weren't strangers. They were her family.

According to Nabulwala, while she was in Uganda her father became very angry and an aunt physically abused her when she came out to her family while she was in high school. She said she needed hospitalization overnight after a mob attacked a meeting of a lesbian rights group she belonged to while she was attending university in Uganda, and on another occasion two relatives arranged for her to be raped by a stranger. She came to the U.S. in 2001.

What's most intriguing about cases like this, we think, is the fact that while our immigration services will grant asylum based on homophobic persecution - thus making America a hot spot for rogue queers - our government still won't let gays serve in the military, nor will they grant them marriage certificates or equal protection under the law. Just thought we'd throw that out there...