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The new edition of the Human Rights Campaign's so-called Congressional Scorecard has found an increase in both supportive and unsupportive legislators.HRC said the findings reveal a "stark polarisation.""A strong and devoted group of anti-LGBT legislators continues to stymie the progress LGBT people deserve," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "The fact that the first ever vote to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the House of Representatives was countered by a filibuster in the Senate illustrates the landscape."In the House, 145 members received a pro-gay score of 90 percent or better, compared to 128 members in the previous Congress. Senators scoring 90 percent or better this year rose from 32 to 36. However, the number of senators receiving a zero score from HRC climbed as well, from 16 to 32. The number of House zeros remained unchanged."As more and more Americans support equality for
by Kathy DraskyThe story in this video was first brought to our attention last week on Facebook. It is a story not unlike so many of ours. Josh, an American, married Henry, who is from Venezuela, in a state that recognizes gay marriages (Connecticut) last year. We all know the drill - 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, and would most likely 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
On Monday, President Obama said in a radio interview on Univision that he would push for overhaul of our immigration policies after the midterms. Some strategists have argued that this is the best way for the Democrats in to shore up its base and divide the Republicans before the 2012 presidential race.This campaign season, the controversial Arizona law brought immigration reform to the forefront of our national conversation and highlighted a key distinction between the parties. Tea Party candi
by Mark GerardyBack on election day 2008, it was a great day - a Democrat president after an eight-year hiatus, a Democrat-majority in the House and Senate, many Democrat governors, almost everything was perfect - except California's anti-gay Proposition 8 narrowly passed.Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get everything that you want in one full-swoop?Some elections, it has been good just to get anything that you want. Any victory, anywhere. Rarely, if ever, does anyone get every single thing that they want, either for Christmas or on Election Day. It's life.Election Day 2010 probably will not be as good as 2008, and there will be fewer presents. I am fairly certain that despite my best efforts, unfortunately one of the Colorado Senate seats will go to openly-homophobic Republican Ken Buck. Between that and less Democrats in the Senate and House, things are not going to look very good f
NEW BLOG OF THE WEEK!!!!! The DEPORTATION. I describe how Fabienne got deported in the Canada/USA border. Please check it out. This is a very hard time in our lives. We discover the hard way how unfair, cruel and broken our immigration system is. I also talk about of how and when we met, how my friends loved her, how she changed me, places we traveled, etc... I also have a facebook page called Gay marriage and immigration equality. please fell free to check it out.
I have pictures and videos as well. before all this happened I had no idea that things like these happens in the USA. The reason I am doing all this is to educate people about it. Feel free to send me your links, blogs, pages, etc. related to this topic. I am very interested to learn from everybody experience and we can all share and learn from each other.
Not that Giannoulias doesn't deserve HRC's endorsement, or your vote. He sounds like he does!: "As the next senator from the great state of Illinois, I will lead the fight for equality — for marriage equality, for an end to DOMA, for employment non-discrimination, and for immigration reform that treats same-sex couples fairly."

If you can't count on the Human Rights Campaign to effectively lobby lawmakers to actually effect change, at the very least you can, say, use their Corporate Equality Index to decide whether your contribution to climate change should be backed by the gay-friendly Chevron or the gay-hating ExxonMobil. And then there's HRC's recommendations for who you should vote for, which, with Rep. Mark Kirk, it just proved you shouldn't really trust either.
The debate over whether same-sex couples should be included in the immigration overhaul is resurfacing, threatening to break the fragile coalition supporting it.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is holding a press conference Monday to announce that he wants to extend family immigration benefits to binational gay couples. The representative leading the charge on immigration had not included that community in his original proposal unveiled last year. ...

"This proposal threatens to undermine the opportunity to bring together the Congress and the American people around a common solution to the important challenge of immigration reform," the group said in a statement.

The gay rights issue could also alienate Evangelical leaders who could sway moderate Democrats and Republicans to support immigration.

Liberal factions in the coalition argue tha
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
Gay immigrants will be helped by immigration reform, even if it doesn’t allow gay Americans to sponsor their partners. But should you support a bill that excludes LGBT families?

When thousands of marchers descend on the National Mall this Sunday to rally support for immigration reform, hundreds of them will be representing the LGBT population.

“Immigration Equality has registered 200 marchers and has also learned that an additional 100 LGBT advocates will be coming to D.C. by bus to join us at the march,” Steve Ralls, director of communications for the organization, said Tuesday. “We’re now expecting a contingent of more than 300, standing for LGBT immigrants and families on the National Mall.”

Immigration activists hope to impress upon Congress that they expect to see action taken on immigration reform this year, even as President Barack Obama dec
On Sunday, March 21st, thousands will march in Washington for March for America, to call on Congress for comprehensive immigration reform. Please join NCLR and Immigration Equality and send a message that comprehensive reform must include LGBT families too!

Current immigration policy unfairly discriminates against LGBT binational couples by not allowing U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor foreign-born partners for immigration. We must call on Congress for the swift passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), proposed legislation that would provide LGBT couples with the same immigration benefits as different-sex couples.
There are many people throughout the United States who seem more and more unhappy with the current state of gay rights issues. This unhappiness seems particularly acute when discussing the issue of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act). Under current United States Federal law same sex marriages are not recognized by the Federal Government. Therefore, United States Immigration benefits based upon marriage cannot be extended to the same-sex partners of US citizens as same sex marriage is not recognized as a “marriage” for purposes of US Immigration.
Many have advocated either the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act or the enactment of some federal legislation which would allow for same sex immigration benefits notwithstanding DOMA. A recent example of the latter is the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) which would provide US Immigration benefits to “permanent partners” of US Citiz
How does Obama the President compare to Obama the candidate on gay rights? It's no secret that GLBT advocates have expressed disappointment and frustration with decisions by the White House to avoid pressing for gay rights during the first year of the administration. No executive order to halt the discharges of gay troops; no bold leadership on passing non-discrimination legislation; no mention of a ballot initiative in Maine to reverse marriage equality that might have made a real difference in the loss there Tuesday. We helped elect him with our votes, money, and time because we were promised change. But in our lives as GLBT people, that's not what's being delivered.
And now we're in a pickle. Most are...

Despite a plea from Senator John Kerry, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to act in the asylum case of Genesio "Junior" Oliveira, who requested asylum in the U.S. in 2002. In 2005, he was married in Massachusetts to his husband Tim Coco, but the couple have been separated since 2007 when Oliveira was sent back to Brazil after his asylum requests and appeals were denied.
You might even call their activism a lifestyle, rather than something likely innate, such as sexual orientation. Bailes has chosen to be an activist.

"We're also going to see our representative, Mike Thompson," Bailes adds of their D.C. trip. "We're going to speak with him about why he hasn't come onboard with marriage equality and immigration equality. He's usually onboard, so I wanted to speak to him and find out why."
thousands of fair-minded Americans congregating in our nation's capital for Equality Across America's "National Equality March 2009." The March serves as a call to action for a new generation of activists, gay and straight, to join the movement for LGBT equality. The event's goal is to reinvigorate the LGBT movement on a national level so participants can take their experiences home to their communities across America and convey the urgency behind their quest for demanding equal rights. Logo, a division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA - News and VIA.B - News) MTV Networks, announced today that it will support the March by participating in a number of events surrounding the weekend.

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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.