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“I don’t want to be an activist,” Josh Vandiver, a 29-year-old gay man explained.A Harvard graduate completing his Ph.D. at Princeton, with a focus on comparative ancient Greek and Renaissance political theory, Vandiver said, “I want to finish up my dissertation and become a professor… I’m a reclusive scholar. I like to be in the library all day.”Cristina Ojeda, a 24-year-old lesbian who came to the US from Mexico when she was 11 and became a citizen at the same time her father did, has more experience with LGBT causes. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, she found herself amidst a politically charged student body. “It was natural to be involved,” she said.Still, when Ojeda, who grew up in California, moved to Buffalo to get a master’s in social work at SUNY, she found an apartment off campus in a low-income neighborhood where she felt uneasy leading a vis
A Brazilian man was reunited with his Massachusetts husband this week after U.S. Sen. John Kerry pressed federal officials to temporarily allow the 31-year-old gay man back into the country on humanitarian grounds.

Brazilian-born Genesio "Junior" Oliveira rejoined Tim Coco, 49, of Haverhill, at an emotional reunion at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Gay rights and immigrant advocates declared the case a rare victory for gay, married asylum seekers.
Immigration Equality, a non-profit advocacy and legal aid organization serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV-positive immigrants and their families, announced today that it has established a “501(c)4” entity, the Immigration Equality Action Fund, to significantly increase its federal advocacy and grassroots organizing work. The Action Fund’s launch also includes an expanded office in Washington, D.C., where a new policy staffer and an online grassroots organizer will soon join the organization.

“The launch of the Immigration Equality Action Fund comes at a critical moment in our work to advocate on behalf of LGBT immigrant families,” said Rachel B. Tiven, the organization’s executive director. “As Congress turns its attention to comprehensive immigration reform, and as a record number of lawmakers signal their support for the Uniting American Families A
They met nearly 20 years ago in the Netherlands.

From the start, Jenny Phipps, a Delaware native, and Ottie Pondman said they forged a bond they never shared with their husbands.

When Phipps divorced her husband of 17 years, she moved in with Pondman, a native of the Netherlands, who was already divorced. The two lived as a couple in Zoetermeer.

But when the 52-year-old Phipps decided she wanted to return to the United States following her brother's death, Pondman, 61, agreed and came over on a visa waiver program -- essentially a tourist permit -- to legally remain here.

In September, though, immigration officials gave Pondman 60 to 90 days to leave the country. Her only chance of staying was to get married.
Congratulations to Shirley Tan and Jay Mercado and the boys and Mommy. Shirley was named ADVOCATE MAGAZINE ’s Activist of the Year for 2009. This is well deserved. However they may have been used in a way that could result in resentment from the community rather than the applause they deserve: Here are the comments from Immigration Equality’s (IE) BLOG site where IE makes the announcement: Quoting the Announcement by IE on their BLOG:
Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (and formerly that committee’s Republican Chairman), has signed on as a cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA).

At last June’s Senate Judiciary Committee UAFA hearing, Specter expressed strong support for ending discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans and their families in immigration law. Immigration Equality applauds Senator Specter for his support for LGBT binational families.

Eight of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s twelve Democrats are now cosponsors of UAFA. A ninth, Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware, recently publicly stated his support for equal immigration rights for LGBT families
If I take it on, and it will be at no charge, will you be willing to stand up for UAFA? ”Jay did not think for even a moment when she responded, “Melanie, if we can keep Shirl here we will do anything for UAFA.” ... This adventure to D.C., now their second was sponsored by Immigration Equality. Who would have thought where that one call by Molly would lead. It just goes to show what going that extra mile can do. So well done Tan Mercado family you have been true to your ...
Remember when President Obama promised to be our fierce advocate, then got to the White House and sat on his hands, and then invited us over for tea to make nice? Looks like LGBTs aren't the only "special interest" (hah!) group outraged at the way he operates.

Some of us (bi-national couples) are waiting for comprehensive immigration reform that also includes same sex bi-national couples, my name is InExile for a reason. Some of us are sitting here waiting for immigration reform ...
A carefully planned test challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal statute that bans federal recognition of same sex marriages, is taking shape in Massachusetts, one of a growing number of states to recognize marriage equality. The case could have important immigration implications because DOMA bars conferring immigration benefits to these couples. If the plaintiffs are successful, it would pave the way for US citizens to petition for green cards for their same-sex spouses.

While the high-profile, Ted Olson- and David Boies-managed legal fight against California's Proposition 8 captures headlines, a carefully planned case quietly underway in Massachusetts federal court could be the gay marriage test with the greatest national impact....
For countless millions of people in America and around the globe, Lady Liberty and her torch light the way to freedom and equality. For gay and lesbian bi-national couples, the famed statue, with a cold and stern face, seems more like a heartless sentry guarding the nation’s borders and ripping lives apart.

Ryan Wilson, a Columbia resident and a sexual health coordinator at the University of South Carolina, first met his partner, Shehan Welihindha, at the 2008 National Lesbian and Gay Task Force Creating Change conference in Denver.

“We met in the very first session on the very first day,” Wilson told Q-Notes. “We ended up sitting at the same table because we were from the same region. Shehan was working at the University of Arkansas.”

They’ve been in a committed, mostly long-distance relationship ever since. Both Wilson, 25, and Welihindha, 27, ha
Assure fairness in immigration and specifically provide immigration equality for same-gender couples (D076). CONCURRED: The Resolution was adopted by both Houses and has become an Act of Convention.

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The 76th General Convention, meeting in Anaheim, California, July 8-17, acted on or referred every one of the 419 resolutions it considered.
Below is an unofficial, unaudited, abbreviated summary of some of the resolutions passed by both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. ENS staff culled it from the General Convention Office's searchable legislative tracking website.

Meanwhile, the church's General Convention office has produced a 25-page summary of convention actions available here. It includes a list of resolutions sorted by their final status; a list of resolutions that deal with the church's constitution, canons and the convention's
Foundations of Betrayal offers a fresh inside look at an overlooked enemy - hundreds of big tax-exempt, leftist foundations that despise free enterprise and, yes, even our Constitution and America's sovereignty. "Wealth controls culture" and Phil Kent names the control freaks - old-timers like the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as well as devious newcomers like George Soros. Issues ranging from radical environmentalism to open borders serve as their main battering rams to remold America. These unaccountable elites also pay church groups to join their leftward march. They even promote deviant sexual behavior... Ford's website highlights its support of many political advocacy groups such as the Migration Policy Institute, the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project and the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force.
The March on Washington has reached critical mass and it will play to a national audience on October 11 — National Coming Out Day, the traditional day for gay Washington protests. On that day in 1987, as the AIDS epidemic was treated with a stony indifference by President Ronald Reagan, the LGBT community mobilized a major demonstration around the slogan “Silence = Death.”

By now, the march is a sure thing, and those of us who don’t participate run the risk of making it a failure. Those of us who do march are likely to have one of the happiest moments in our lives. It has been my pleasure to march on Washington nearly a dozen times. Had I not been overseas, I would have been in Washington in 1963 when Martin Luther King articulated his dream. Now is the time we carry equality one step further and demand the full inclusion of the LGBT community in the nation’s civil rights l
Immigration rights - For Indian gay and lesbian couples, immigration is a vital area in the push for gay rights. Presently, they face difficulties in making career moves because of limitations regarding the visas they can obtain for their partners. SALGA points out there is a disgraceful prejudice in denying people immigration equality on the basis of sexual orientation.

"We are hoping that legalising gay marriages will allow same-sex couples to file for visas like straight couples," said Sooklall. He added that SALGA receives pleas for help from its own members and from gays and lesbians living in South Asia. "I know two cases where people did get asylum," said Sooklall.

Britain, Canada, South Africa and most west European countries have immigration policies that recognise same sex couples, but there has been no change to American immigration laws for gay coup
It’s not as if gaining marriage equality in California makes everything equal for same-sex couples. We’ve still got DOMA—the Defense of Marriage Act—to contend with, and that’s a big problem. Our agenda is to repeal DOMA. So basically, while Courage Campaign and Marriage Equality USA are focusing here in California on repealing [Proposition] 8, our agenda is about repealing DOMA at the federal level.

I think that most same-sex couples don’t recognize how serious the effects of DOMA are until they become married, and then all of a sudden, it’s real. What we’ve found, over the last seven months, is that ...

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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.