Twisted Politics

Another story off the presses about gay couples divided by American immigration law, exploring the twisted dilemma of two of the most politically charged issues in our time: gay rights and immigration reform.  

Immigration Equality, a New York-based advocacy organization, estimates 36,000 binational, same-sex couples like the ones profiled in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle story are left with few options to legally build lives together in the U.S.:

• Gay and  lesbian U.S. citizens are not entitled to apply for legal status for their partners, even if their marriage is recognized by state law. 
• Massachusetts and Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage as a result of judicial decisions in 2003 and 2008, while Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire followed this spring by legislative action. In the rest of the country, only Iowa allows same-sex couples to marry.

Here is an excerpt from the Sunday story about the couple — one in Canada and the other in Texas — I found particularly intriguing: 

A strong voice in the pro-immigrant movement, the Catholic Church, also has taken a stand against the bill, based on the belief that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman, said Kevin Appleby, migration policy director for U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He added that the church, long supportive of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, sees the push for same-sex couples as giving “opponents another arrow in their quiver.”

“The last thing the immigration debate needs is another politically divisive issue,” Appleby said. “Immigration is controversial enough, and to add another issue of national interest that is also controversial could be combustible.”

Combustible indeed! When I first posted a story about a binational, same-sex couple, the slew of anti-gay comments was expected but disheartening. As I previously wrote in response to these comments, it’s very difficult to profitably explain why immigration rights should extend to gay and lesbian immigrants when there are folks who still believe that the rights of the gay community should continue to be restricted in the legal, financial and societal sectors of our community. If anything we can see through these personal stories how intertwined all these issues — immigration, gay and lesbian rights, privacy laws — really are and how addressing one (i.e. inherently discriminatory policies against gays and lesbians in our military and society) could positively impact another. I disagree with Appleby (quoted above) — while it’s true the immigration debate does not so extensively overlap with the gay rights debate, we cannot ignore it when it does. We just have to find a way not to let our heads combust in the process!

A glimmer of hope 

Last week, the Obama administration took another step toward restoring fairness and humanity to the immigration system by granting two-year reprieves to immigrants who were married to U.S. citizens but didn’t complete the permanent residency process in time, because their American spouses died during the process. Read more about the new policies here.

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