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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
By Matt Hennie | Oct 26, 2010 | 7:00 PMVIEW PHOTOS | Georgia Democratic Party LGBT Caucus Candidate MixerTop Democrats – including former Gov. Roy Barnes—mingled with LGBT politicos during a reception Monday, urging them to donate money and support them in the closing days of the campaign, but they did so without talking much about gay issues.Barnes (top photo) was joined by state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, who is running for U.S. Senate; Carol Porter, who is campaigning for lieutenan
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.
“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
Starting in April groups will submit reports on human rights within the U.S. as part of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of the country this year. Dittrich intends to ask pointed questions about the lack of marriage rights for same-sex couples, anti-gay immigration policies and the restriction against gays serving openly in the military.

The United States has also felt Dittrich’s influence. Through his involvement with the U.S. Council for Global Equality, he pushed the State Department to require all American ambassadors to include reports on LGBT issues in the countries where they are stationed.
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.
Next week the D.C. Council will discuss a resolution showing support of the Uniting American Families Act pending in Congress.

Councilman At-Large David Catania authored the resolution last week, and the other 12 members of the council co-introduced it.

U.S. immigration law does not allow same-sex citizens and permanent residents to sponsor foreign-born partners for immigration benefits.

The UAFA, introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would "amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting permanent partners of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents and to penalize immigration fraud in connec
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
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
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
A fund-raiser has been planned on Sunday, February 28 to support Immigration Equality, an organization that is seeking to get the U.S. HIV ban repealed this year, and is working hard to get legislation passed that will allow a U.S. citizen to sponsor his/her same-sex partner for permanent residency in the United States.
California Democratic representative Maxine Waters, a member of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on immigration, has cosponsored legislation that would provide immigration rights to binational gay couples and their families.

Waters’s support comes at a crucial time for LGBT immigration reform. Last week 60 Congress members issued a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders urging passage of the legislation, originally introduced in the House by New York representative Jerrold Nadler and in the Senate by Vermont’s Patrick Leahy.
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
Mr. President, with great respect, I am mentioning this during the holiday season because this time for many is fraught with sadness, fear and pain. Exiled Americans, who are with their spouses, cannot come home to spend Xmas with extended families and if they do, they have to leave spouses abroad. Tens of thousands of same sex couples are unable to spend these holidays together because they are stuck in different countries. These families cannot wait any longer. Our binational spouses and partners are being turned away at US airports, even as I write these words, at the arbitrary instance of an ICE officer....
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.

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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.