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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
Please contact your …Please contact your representative and tell them to support The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA, H.R. 1024, S. 424). I’m also a person that has to live out side of the USA because my partner is French. This is unjust and unfair! It’s time to make the law equal for everyone! Please support UAFA.
California’s Senate Judiciary committee may soon be holding an official hearing on AJR 15, a resolution if approved would confirm California’s support of the passing of a United States Congressional bill The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA-HR.1024 & S 424).

Authored by Assembly Member Kevin de Leon, CA-45, AJR 15 declares California’s disapproval of current US Immigration laws which forbids Same-Sex bi-national couples the opportunity from being able to sponsor their partners for immigration purposes.
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Chicago), joined by fellow Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), called May 24 for the inclusion of gay and lesbian binational couples in the comprehensive immigration reform measure now before Congress.

"Our legal immigration system is so dysfunctional and restrictive that we have created incentives for people to go around our system rather than going through it," Gutierrez said. "Nowhere is this more true than for committed same-sex couples who have to make a painful choice between their family and the immigration laws of the U.S. that do not recognize these family units for the purposes of immigration."

At a press conference at the Center on Halsted, Gutierrez said U.S. laws that allow heterosexuals to sponsor a partner for citizenship, but not gays and lesbians, send the wrong message.

"It seems t
“Let me die, die trying; if I fall, at least my heart will have been true. Let me die, die trying; I can cry tomorrow if I do.”

Kristen Hall intertwines the necessary optimism and ever-lingering pessimism same-sex bi-national couples suffer in these two lines from one of my favourites of her insightfully written songs. When I listen to her velvety voice wrapping itself around these words, I feel the bristle of pain and anger that springs from a relationship started with pure joy and naïveté. Like many who are partnered with a same-sex foreigner, I often find myself teetering between tossing in the towel and jumping full force into the uncertainty of starting over, propelled equally by love and desperation.

I’m not over-dramatising—I’m a girl in love with a girl who just happens to come from another country, my country’s greatest ally—the United Kingdom. The mor
For supporters of LGBT rights, the election of President Obama represented an apparent historical turning point for sexual minorities in our country. As a presidential candidate, Obama had said all of the rights things: he criticized the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy (DADT); he called for the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect employees against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination; and called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

But now that almost a third of Obama's first term has gone by, there is growing despair among many of his LGBT supporters over how little the administration has accomplished on gay rights. We have been here before. Eighteen years ago many gay rights advocates celebrated the election of President Clinton, the first presidential candidate to reach out to the LGBT c
You're from the United States. You fall in love with a foreign national. Straight couples have legal recourse in this situation: get married and sponsor your spouse for citizenship.

Gay couples in this situation have no legal recourse, an issue that SF Weekly recently highlighted with the stories of several same-sex couples who were separated by US immigration law, or had one partner living in the United States illegally.

Because the federal Defense of Marriage Act prohibits legal recognition of same-sex relationships, couples married in California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont can't sponsor their spouses for citizenship either.

Democrats in the Senate have included a provision for same-sex couples in their immigration reform proposal released April 29, which will give them the same immigration rights as straight cou
Rare Permission by DHS for Binational CoupleLez Get RealHowever because gay people are unable to sponsor a spouse for immigration to the USA in parity with heterosexual couples, they were separated for nearly ...and more »

Tim Coco and Genesio Oliveira married in 2005, when same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts.

However because gay people are unable to sponsor a spouse for immigration to the USA in parity with heterosexual couples, they were separated for nearly three years with Tim in Massachusetts and Genesio stuck in Brazil..

In an extraordinarily rare show of compassion, the immigration officials granted permission for Genesio to enter the USA and remain here for one year on humanitarian grounds, clearing the way for him to try again for legal residency.


Coco said he has spent about $250,000 in legal bills. A h
A resolution supporting the federal bill that would allow gay U.S. citizens to sponsor their partners for a visa passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

Our cover story this week, "Worlds Apart," tells the story of three Bay Area couples whose lives would be changed by the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a federal bill that allows "permanent partners" to be treated the same as straight spouses in immigration matters. Currently, gay couples have no legal pathway to sponsor their foreign partners to stay in the country.


While the federal UAFA bill is on hold while lawmakers decide whether to include it in the comprehensive immigration reform, California legislators such as Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced a resolution last year urging the U.S. Congress to pass the s
Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley was among those on hand at a forum at the Center on Halsted in Chicago. LGBT immigration reform was the topic of conversation for some 50 activists who gathered at the Center on Halsted on Chicago on Tuesday, Feb. 16, for a discussion forum sponsored by the National Immigrant Justice Center and the Strength in Unity Coalition. In addition to addressing the needs of gay and lesbian couples who are unable to sponsor their partners for citizenship while heterosexual couples can, forum panelists and attendees spoke on myriad concerns at the intersection of immigrant and LGBT rights.
We are moved by stories of bi-national couples who are fighting to keep their families together amidst a broken immigration system. Thousands of bi-national couples who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) are at risk of separation. With no clear pathway towards legalization nor federal recognition of same-sex couples, these couples live constantly in a state of fear or exile.

We believe that keeping families together should be an integral part of comprehensive immigration reform. We believe that we strengthen our communities and our nation when we support the right of all families to stay together, including LGBT families.

This is why we support the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). UAFA would add the term “permanent partner” to those sections of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that apply to legally married couples. Under UAF
Proponents of comprehensive immigration reform legislation are planning to rally this weekend in support of the bill — and drum up support for a proposed component that would help same-sex couples.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators — perhaps even up to 100,000 — are expected to gather Sunday at 2 p.m. on the National Mall to call for passing immigration reform this year. Reform Immigration for America, a coalition of immigration reform organizations, is staging the event.

Within this larger protest, a contingent of about 200 protesters is set to advocate for LGBT inclusion in immigration reform, and in particular, a provision to help same-sex bi-national couples.

Because same-sex couples don’t have federal marriage rights that are available to straight couples, LGBT people in same-sex relationships with a foreign national cannot marry their partne
You may know that the federal government plans to count everybody in America in this year, but the once-a-decade Census has changed to more accurately count LGBT families in 2010, and that’s a good thing.

GayPolitics sat down with two people deeply involved in making sure the LGBT community understands what has changed and why it’s important that our community participates as fully as possible.

Che Ruddell-Tabisola is the manager for National LGBT Partnerships and coordinator of Our Families Count, a new effort by the U.S. Census Bureau to engage the LGBT community. Bob Witeck is CEO and co-founder of Witeck-Combs Communications. He is serving as media coordinator for Our Families Count and is working with Che to promote the effort nationwide.
So far the votes are not there to undo DOMA, and an immigration reform bill set to be taken up by a House committee early next year does not include any LGBT language. The out lawmakers did say they believe when the House does schedule a vote on immigration reform the final version of the bill will include the pro-gay provisions for LGBT binational couples.
Our exiles and exiles-to-be cannot wait for the impending Immigration Reform battle or for UAFA to garnish more co-sponsors. Our binationals do not want to be the “Public Option” of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. ...Many of us already know the story of Shirley Tan – a California mother in a legal partnership with another woman. Tan is Filipino and her partner is American. If they were a heterosexual couple, Shirley’s right to be in the United States with her partner – her wife – and her twin sons would not be questioned. Married couples in the United States get automatic immigration rights. We do not need to wait for DOMA to be overturned or for years and years to get OUR rights included in some massive Immigration Policy overhaul.

We can do this now.

Read the explanation below. Watch the video. Click through to sign the petition. Thanks!

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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.