The story in this video was first brought to my attention last week on Facebook. It is a story not unlike so many I have heard in my work with Out4Immigration. Josh, an American, married Henry, who is from Venezuela, in a state that recognizes gay marriages (Connecticut) last year. If Josh was "Jane", he would have been able to petition the federal government to sponsor his husband for a green card. While there may be a waiting period and even an "investigation", the couple would not be looking down the barrel of being forced apart with the foreign partner being deported, and most likely they would end up living happily ever after in the US.But Josh is a man and so is Henry, and as another Congressional session comes to a close with more co-sponsors of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) than ever before, but still no debate, much less a floor vote and our secure inclusion in Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) as "iffy" as CIR as a whole, where do we go from here? What do we do in 2011 if neither UAFA nor a truly inclusive CIR passes in the lame duck session of Congress after next week's election?Repealing DOMA seemed like more of a long shot back in 2006 when Out4Immigration was founded than passing UAFA, but times have changed. Back in early 2006, in the throes of the Bush-Cheney years, our heads were still reeling from the backlash of the 2004 election, when gay marriage was used as a scare tactic by Karl Rove and company to re-elect Bush. We did not mention "marriage" or talk about "repealing DOMA" in the same breath as UAFA and same-sex binational couples. I know - I helped launch O4I and carefully crafted each message we sent out to clarify that we were not advocating for marriage. In fact, back then UAFA was known as the "Permanent Partners Immigration Act" - emphasis on "permanent partners", terminology the American public could handle.But times have changed. Polls now show a majority of Americans today support gay marriage. The shift in public opinion in the last four years has been monumental. Earlier this year, parts of DOMA were ruled unconstitutional.
For Same-Sex Binational Couples, Is the Time
Posted by
uluckidog 932 days ago
(http://kazzadraskmedia.blogspot.com)
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Promoting public awareness of the need for fairness in immigration policy particularly as it relates to the rights of same-sex bi-national couples in the United States who seek equal immigration rights; Providing information regarding political issues relating to gay immigration equality issues, rights and policy.
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