Thursday, February 12, 2009

Immigration Equality



On a very important personal note, word is that today Rep. Jerrold Nadler plans on reintroducing the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in the House of Representatives. It's not exactly the most opportune time to try to divert attention to something like this - really, anything other than the economic stimulus - but nonetheless.

The Uniting American Families Act is a crucial bill that would right many existing wrongs in immigration law. It would allow foreign-born "permanent partners" of the same-sex to be sponsored for immigration purposes. You see, currently the federal government does not recognize same-sex partners as "spouses" (even if they are married), because of the Defense of Marriage Act, which requires the federal government to define marriage as between one man and one woman. This means that for so-called bi-national couples like me and my wife, Eleanor (who is British), the American one of the two cannot sponsor his/her same-sex partner to come live in America. It is a right legal mess, and has caused thousands to live abroad. For more information, please visit immigrationequality.org. And please, please. If you want to help grow support for this issue, please contact your Representative and tell him/her to co-sponsor the UAFA.

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