Posted on 05/21/2010 4:33:19 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Hopes that foreign-born partners of gay and lesbian Americans could follow the same path to citizenship as heterosexual spouses got a boost Thursday when U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago said he would fight to include such a proposal in the campaign for comprehensive immigration reform.
Six months ago, when Gutierrez first laid out plans to introduce an immigration reform bill in the U.S. House, the inclusion of same-sex partner rights seemed too politically risky. But the Democrat now says he believes the coalition in favor of immigration reform is strong enough to make the bill "truly inclusive."
"The underlying part of any comprehensive immigration bill is family unity," Gutierrez said in an interview with the Tribune. "We need to speak more clearly and more articulately and more frequently that the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, and same-sex couples and their binational relationships, are part of families."
The 2000 U.S. census estimated that there were more than 35,000 binational same-sex couples in the country. At this point, same-sex binational couples who want to remain together in the United States have to rely on work or student visas, or seek other legal loopholes.
"This has a terrible impact on couples," said Eric Berndt, supervising attorney for the National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago. "It can tear apart their lives, it can tear apart their relationships and it can force them to choose between their countries and the person they love."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Someone please wake me up from my nightmare!
LOL...guess amnesty isn’t unpopular enough...he has to pile this on there, too!
Yeah, what this country needs is more GAY green card marriage scams. Not enough of the straight kind, apparently.
” If you vote for my criminal activity, I’ll vote for your criminal activity, and we have a coalition. “
EXACTLY!!!!! They’re all part of the “Something for Nothin’ Tribe!
Now THAT would be a great bumper sticker!!
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