Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Immigration Inequality

Imagine, if you can, falling in love with someone from another country. It could be someone you met on vacation or while living abroad. Maybe you met him through a dating site or another online social site or even a friend. Your relationship develops over time, he comes here for a visit you go there and then you decide ‘he is the one'. You want to spend your life with this person. Sounds easy right? You plan your wedding, file all the necessary paperwork for a temporary visa so he can move here, wait for your interviews and eventually if all goes as planned he gets permanent status and can possible even become a US citizen if he so chooses.

Well for thousands of US Citizens this process is impossible. While 19 nations around the world allow their citizens to sponsor their same sex partner the United States does not. Same sex couples that may have even married in other countries cannot come back together and have their marriage recognized because of the Unites States' Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

These couples face leaving behind the person they love or leave their country and their family to move somewhere else. This isn't always an easy solution either because unless their partner is in a country that allows same sex partner sponsorship then these US citizens are faced with meeting rigorous immigration requirements before being allowed to immigrate out of the United States.

As of the 2000 Census there were approx. 36,000 gay couples with one person being a US citizen and the other a foreign national. They represented about 6% of all gay couples in the United States.

Our current marriage laws have a very real and serious impact on GLBT Americans. I cannot lie and say I understand anyone that believes their personal belief on ‘marriage' gives them the right to deny other citizens the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness. But I'm willing to read your opinions.

Can you stop for one second and think what your life would be like without your partner/husband or if you had never been able to build the family you have built?

If you are interested you can read more about this issue in the Family, Unvalued report that was put out by Immigration Equality a few years ago.