Bipartisan Bill Would Ensure Gay Bi-National Couples Equal Treatment

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/06/062105immigration.htm

Legislation was introduced in Congress Tuesday that would treat same-sex couples the same as opposite sex-couples for the purposes of immigration.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt) in the Senate, has a large number of bipartisan cosponsors in both chambers.

The Uniting American Families Act was previously named the Permanent Partners Immigration Act which died when the last session of Congress ended.

[Melodybe]

1. Yay, this makes me happy

big kick!

[davidinalameda]

2. don't forget to vote it for greatest thread

little self-promotion never hurts

this is great news--at least the issue is out there even thought it won't go anywhere with this congress

[Melodybe]

5. Kicked and nominated

[davidinalameda]

6. thanks

[Inland]

3. "Bi-National Couples"? Obscene! Sinful! Rev up the hate machine!

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

4. Great news!

eom

[foreigncorrespondent]

7. Thanks for posting this dwickham!

I hope the repukes don't stall this one like they have the PPIA for the last five years.

[MountainLaurel]

8. Important issue

I've got a friend who may be facing the need to leave the country in a couple years when his partner completes his Ph.D. It's unlikely since his partner should have little problem finding a job here (he's in a specialized field and has received a good deal of renown), but it exists nonetheless.

[Siyahamba]

9. Thanks, and ways to take action

http://www.lgirtf.org/index.php?pageid=1016#Action_Item_Cosponsor

These Congress members cosponsored the bill last time. Please contact them and encourage them to do so again.

[fluffy chan]

10. God, please let this pass!

I'm not a very political person, but this is one issue that hits close to home for me and it's kind of depressing to see such little support for it here. I really hope this passes because I'd love to bring my partner here instead of me heading overseas(I'm in MA and she's in Scandinavia - we're sick of the cold ^_~ ).

I decided to come out of the lurkers closet to give this a kick and add a bit more information:

Uniting American Families Act
(formerly called Permanent Partners Immigration Act)

The problem. Lesbian, gay and bisexual U.S. citizens are prohibited from petitioning for their same-sex partners to immigrate, forcing thousands of couples to live apart or to emigrate to one of the 15 countries with immigration laws designed to keep families together.

What is the Uniting American Families Act?

Under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents may sponsor their spouses (and other immediate family members) for immigration purposes. But same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and permanent residents are not considered “spouses” and their partners cannot sponsor them for family-based immigration. Consequently, many same-sex binational couples are kept apart or torn apart. And since immigration is regulated on a federal level, even binational couples who have entered into marriages, civil unions or other legally recognized relationships in their home states still cannot sponsor their spouses for immigration purposes. The Uniting American Families Act would help to remedy this injustice.

<snip>

http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Uniting_American_Families_Act

_____________________________________________________________________

http://www.lgirtf.org/template.php?pageid=152

Current Status:

The UAFA currently rests in the respective Judiciary committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In order for the bill to be enacted into law, it will need to clear these committees, be voted upon by the full member bodies of the House and Senate, and either be signed by the President of the United States or, if vetoed, garner a supermajority of votes to override the veto.

_____________________________________________________________________

Get in touch with the Judiciary Committee members who are the next step to getting this passed:

http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx

http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm

[TaleWgnDg]

11. Welcome to DU, fluffy chan, and thanks for the background . . .

.
Welcome to DU, fluffy chan, and thanks for the background . . . information about this congressional bill. As a family law attorney, I've known many couples and their families torn apart by this antiquated and hateful and discriminatory immigration policy.

It's hoped that this bill (Uniting American Families Act) will be enacted by this congress and this president! On the other hand, as we all know it's not friendly in Washington D.C. regarding these issues.

Thus, a get active push should be pursued by DUers:

Get Angry, Get Active, Get Involved:
Notify the U.S. Senate and U.S. House Judiciary Committee members
who are the next step to pass the
Uniting American Families Act:

http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx

http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm

.

[fluffy chan]

12. Hi TaleWgnDg! Thank you for the welcome, kind words and support!

As I said, I’m not really active in politics, but finding out about this floored me. I worked so hard securing a good paying job to be able to be the head of household only to find out that even though my state (MA) allows gay marriage, I still can’t have my partner move here to be with me because immigration is under federal jurisdiction and DOMA is the law of the land...

The sad part is that I could get asylum!! I won’t need to because we can just get married in her country and I can immigrate there, but it’s an option if I needed it. *sigh*

Now here’s the real conundrum (yes, I did quite a bit of research into this if you can’t tell), someone from another country, persecuted for being gay, can get asylum and come HERE but I can’t bring my fiancé here legally because she’s in a LGBT friendly country!

I already wrote to the representatives on the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate about this, and part of what I had to say is as follows, feel free to quote me if anyone wants to use this to also write the representatives (I wrote to both Democrats and Republicans alike since one never knows whose mind they can change). Further note that emails are generally filtered through staffers (some bounce back) so actual letters mailed to the representatives are a better bet to actually reaching them:

<excerpt>

Imagine having to leave your homeland because your own country wouldn’t grant you the freedom to live with the one you loved.

I definitely would expect this from a country that isn’t up to par on civil rights – but America? The land of the Free and the home of the Brave? Where my forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

Sir, my own pursuit of happiness just smashed head on into a brick wall. I have to be an exile from my country, the one where in the harbor of New York stands a lady with a book and torch. Written upon the plaque at her base are the words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

The golden door is closed to the one I love, so I have to walk out of it and to a foreign shore.

</excerpt>

My situation in particular isn’t as poignant as others I have read about since I can get married and move... but it shouldn’t have to be that way. The simple truth is there are people in my position and one’s who are worse off. It’s just not right. *sigh*

Some other good reading about others in the same situation (have a hankie ready!):

http://www.immigrationequalityla.org/haxall/page.html?=&cid=518

____________________________________________________________________

And some other good info:

A preliminary study of the 2000 census by demographer Gary Gates at the Williams Project on gay studies at the UCLA, found that 6 percent of the 594,391 same-sex unmarried partners that were counted included one citizen and one noncitizen. That would indicate more than 35,000 same-sex bi-national couples living in the United States at the time of the census.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/22/MNGJ7DC9821.DTL

Who knows, maybe eventually enough people will understand and the law will finally change – and my partner and I can finally live in Florida like we wanted to.

^^;; and thanks for listening! Sorry to thread jack!

Happy 4th of July too!

[TaleWgnDg]

13. Getting politically active could have positive results;

.
Getting politically active could have positive results; however, in the meantime as you and your partner await those political results, I suggest you write a (snail-mail) letter to Senator Kennedy with your personal story/appeal:

1.) Such a written letter would give him one more constituent in his endeavor to overturn this discrimination in the Senate; and

2.) Such a request to Senator Kennedy should ask for his assistance with your personal story as his Massachusetts constituent.

Senator Kennedy is a co-sponsor of "Permanent Partners Immigration Act" (S.1278) also known as "Uniting American Families Act" as introduced in the Senate on June 21, 2005. See also:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:1:./temp/~c109TzHGGk:e419:

Regards.

___________________________________

Kennedy's info:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
2400 JFK Building
Boston, MA 02203

telephone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]

[Siyahamba]

14. Yes, please call or write your representatives and senators in support

It doesn't take long, and it can have a very strong effect considering they do not receive many calls or letters either way regarding this bill.

Even partners living outside the US should do so; when I lived outside the US I wrote the representative and senators for the district where my partner lived. The representative actually wrote back.