So one of the things you can do to help Alex and me is to write to your representatives in Congress. The more letters they get, the more likely they'll actually get the issue of gay immigration on their radar.
I'll make it easier for you. If you will agree to figure out who represents you in the House and the Senate, I'll give you a template to make it as easy as possible for you.
If you want to go a step further, then join Out 4 Immigration's letter writing campaign.
At that link, you will also get a template for writing to your representatives as well. If you live in New York, you might want to change it slightly.
-Andy
Friday, July 24, 2009
DavidMixner.com: Observations from Turkey Hollow on the LGBT Civil Rights Movement: Part Two: Learning from History.
I've become a fan of David Mixner's over the last several weeks as I've read more of his blog. He is currently in the middle of a series of articles that discuss the gay civil rights movement as a whole, comparing it to previous civil rights struggles, and talking about ways that gays can follow those strategies, and ways they can create their own strategies. A particularly powerful passage in Part 3 of the series resonates strongly for me, especially because Alex and I don't have decades to wait, at least not from within the US:
You can read the full article at David Mixner's blog.
-Andy
We can't line up our issues like planes over Chicago's O'Hare airport, calmly allowing the easy smaller planes to land first and then saving for last the bigger more complex jumbo jets. That strategy could take decades. Can any of you imagine the civil rights leaders cheering President Kennedy if he told them in 1962 at a White House reception to trust him and they would be happy in eight years? As a group, they would have walked out, appalled at the suggestion that their freedom had to be stretched out nearly a decade in some nice plan. They simply would have not tolerated it.
You can read the full article at David Mixner's blog.
-Andy
Thursday, July 23, 2009
If only
So I saw this video today in the Towleroad blog at Towleroad.com. This is a video that it would have been great for me to see when I was 19 or 20. It would have saved me a whole bunch of time, I think. In any case, I thought it was still powerful, and think it would be a good exercise for anyone you know that might have a problem with gay people. At least, if you can get those people to honestly participate in the exercise.
-Andy
-Andy
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Help Save Bryce
And in ex-gay news, that continues to fascinate me. Read this link about a guy who apparently has disappeared after making a frantic call to his boyfriend that his parents were going to send him to an ex-gay program in Florida. It is shocking how callous parents can still be when they realize that their child is gay.
-Andy
-Andy
Marriage Equality
A new article has been published in the Wall Street Journal by David Boies.
He has joined Ted Olson in a quest to overturn California's Proposition 8 based on US Constitutional law, stating in short that the laws banning same sex marriage deny gays equal protection and due process.
What's interesting about these two attorneys is that one of them was the lead attorney for Bush and one was the lead attorney for Gore during the recount mess that happened before Bush's first term as President.
It's an interesting case, and I'll follow it here.
-Andy
He has joined Ted Olson in a quest to overturn California's Proposition 8 based on US Constitutional law, stating in short that the laws banning same sex marriage deny gays equal protection and due process.
What's interesting about these two attorneys is that one of them was the lead attorney for Bush and one was the lead attorney for Gore during the recount mess that happened before Bush's first term as President.
It's an interesting case, and I'll follow it here.
-Andy
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Joe and Steve
So I've just read this story about Joe and Steve. Change a couple of dates and locations, and this could be the story of Alex and me.
We have a bit more time than Joe and Steve. Alex finishes school in December, and if he can find a job by March, he can stay until December of 2010, but after that, everything is up in the air.
http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4388
I hope everything works out for Joe and Steve.
-Andy
We have a bit more time than Joe and Steve. Alex finishes school in December, and if he can find a job by March, he can stay until December of 2010, but after that, everything is up in the air.
http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=4388
I hope everything works out for Joe and Steve.
-Andy
Clinton and Cheney on gay marriage
In the last few days former President Clinton has publicly announced that he has something in common with former Vice-President Dick Cheney. Both of them support same-sex marriage.
I'm going to start by saying that you will see me talk exclusively using the term "same-sex marraige" when I talk about partnership equality for gay couples in the US, but that's only for convenience. I really don't care what it's called. I really don't care if it is given the same name as the government sanctioned relationship of a straight couple. In fact, in my coarser moods, I've been known to say that it could be called a professional cock-suckers license and I would be ok with that. I do care, however, whether it has all the same rights as the government sanctioned relationship between straight couples.
I care about that detail a whole lot. In fact I lose sleep caring about that detail.
That brings me back to Mr. Clinton and Mr. Cheney. Both of them are absolutely wrong in their opinions about same-sex marriage. Yes, both have come out publicly to announce their support for same-sex marriage. Both have also said that it shouldn't be a federal issue.
With all due respect to both of them, that's bullshit.
It is legal for Alex and me to get married in 5 states in the United States. Because of DOMA, however, we are barred from receiving 1138 federal rights associated with marriage. Yes, we could get the benefits of Massachusetts or Connecticut, or Iowa. We'd have to live there to fully take advantage of those rights, but let's not quibble over that detail. Let's focus on what we'd still be denied. We would still be denied the opportunity for me to sponsor Alex for permanent residency status as my spouse. We would still be denied the ability to file jointly in taxes. We would still be denied the ability to take social security survivor benefits. We would still be denied the tax status of spouse for the purpose of estate planning. That's just the tip of the ice burg. There are 1134 more reasons that this is a federal issue.
Until these people taking this stance can figure out a way that we will have full equality from the federal recognition of our lawful marriages within the United States, the can not claim that this is not a federal issue. It affects ever single gay married couple in the US today, and it affects bi-national couples especially hard.
The government sanction doesn't mean all that much to millions of couples, both gay and straight. Many of them marry and divorce before ever realizing just how important some of those benefits can be. I really wish that was my situation. I wish that Alex and I weren't sitting here in limbo every day, wondering if Congress would decide to pass a law that would give us equal status as straight couples for the purposes of immigration. Wishing won't make it so, though, so we'll continue to prepare our exile.
I'm still working on the short list of exile locations, and as much as I would like to start writing about that, I simply haven't had the time in the last few days to make that happen. I'll get to it though.
-Andy
I'm going to start by saying that you will see me talk exclusively using the term "same-sex marraige" when I talk about partnership equality for gay couples in the US, but that's only for convenience. I really don't care what it's called. I really don't care if it is given the same name as the government sanctioned relationship of a straight couple. In fact, in my coarser moods, I've been known to say that it could be called a professional cock-suckers license and I would be ok with that. I do care, however, whether it has all the same rights as the government sanctioned relationship between straight couples.
I care about that detail a whole lot. In fact I lose sleep caring about that detail.
That brings me back to Mr. Clinton and Mr. Cheney. Both of them are absolutely wrong in their opinions about same-sex marriage. Yes, both have come out publicly to announce their support for same-sex marriage. Both have also said that it shouldn't be a federal issue.
With all due respect to both of them, that's bullshit.
It is legal for Alex and me to get married in 5 states in the United States. Because of DOMA, however, we are barred from receiving 1138 federal rights associated with marriage. Yes, we could get the benefits of Massachusetts or Connecticut, or Iowa. We'd have to live there to fully take advantage of those rights, but let's not quibble over that detail. Let's focus on what we'd still be denied. We would still be denied the opportunity for me to sponsor Alex for permanent residency status as my spouse. We would still be denied the ability to file jointly in taxes. We would still be denied the ability to take social security survivor benefits. We would still be denied the tax status of spouse for the purpose of estate planning. That's just the tip of the ice burg. There are 1134 more reasons that this is a federal issue.
Until these people taking this stance can figure out a way that we will have full equality from the federal recognition of our lawful marriages within the United States, the can not claim that this is not a federal issue. It affects ever single gay married couple in the US today, and it affects bi-national couples especially hard.
The government sanction doesn't mean all that much to millions of couples, both gay and straight. Many of them marry and divorce before ever realizing just how important some of those benefits can be. I really wish that was my situation. I wish that Alex and I weren't sitting here in limbo every day, wondering if Congress would decide to pass a law that would give us equal status as straight couples for the purposes of immigration. Wishing won't make it so, though, so we'll continue to prepare our exile.
I'm still working on the short list of exile locations, and as much as I would like to start writing about that, I simply haven't had the time in the last few days to make that happen. I'll get to it though.
-Andy
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Anything but Straight
So this weekend I've spent some time catching up on my reading and watching list and it was odd that two of the things that were due up were both related to gays and Christianity. What is odd about that is that I consider myself to be irreligious. I don't have any thoughts about it one way or another, except as it relates to politics.
So, it was odd that a documentary on my list of things to watch was For the Bible Tells Me So. I watched it last night, and was really impressed with the construction of it, the stories that were told, and was especially interested in Mary Lou Wallner. When her daughter came out, it did not go well. When her daughter eventually committed suicide, it led her on a journey of discovery and acceptance that was bittersweet. I found myself wondering how many parent lived to regret the way they reacted to their gay child's coming out. It was wonderful to hear her message today, but it was truly sad to think of the cost associated with her journey. If that story is interesting to you, another movie was recently made on a similar topic called "Prayers for Bobby." You'll likely never hear me say the following phrase again, but I watched it on Lifetime.
I am also now in the middle of reading a book called Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. I'm not through the whole book yet, but damn I wish I would have had this book when I was 20 and deeply in denial about my sexuality. My two biggest concerns back then were what to do about my parents, and what to do about what they would tell me about God if I told them. This book would have given me the answers I needed for the second half of those worries. The book is about the phenomenon of ex-gay ministries, the destruction they cause, and their lack of ability to really turn anyone straight.
Next on my list, and it starts tomorrow, is a look at the job markets in some of the cities we're looking at moving to when our time is up in the US.
-Andy
So, it was odd that a documentary on my list of things to watch was For the Bible Tells Me So. I watched it last night, and was really impressed with the construction of it, the stories that were told, and was especially interested in Mary Lou Wallner. When her daughter came out, it did not go well. When her daughter eventually committed suicide, it led her on a journey of discovery and acceptance that was bittersweet. I found myself wondering how many parent lived to regret the way they reacted to their gay child's coming out. It was wonderful to hear her message today, but it was truly sad to think of the cost associated with her journey. If that story is interesting to you, another movie was recently made on a similar topic called "Prayers for Bobby." You'll likely never hear me say the following phrase again, but I watched it on Lifetime.
I am also now in the middle of reading a book called Anything but Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth. I'm not through the whole book yet, but damn I wish I would have had this book when I was 20 and deeply in denial about my sexuality. My two biggest concerns back then were what to do about my parents, and what to do about what they would tell me about God if I told them. This book would have given me the answers I needed for the second half of those worries. The book is about the phenomenon of ex-gay ministries, the destruction they cause, and their lack of ability to really turn anyone straight.
Next on my list, and it starts tomorrow, is a look at the job markets in some of the cities we're looking at moving to when our time is up in the US.
-Andy
Saturday, July 04, 2009
DavidMixner.com: Separate But Unequal Means Gay Apartheid
When I read this sentence from David Mixner, "Let's call it what it is - Gay Apartheid," I was shaking my head no. When I finished the article, I wasn't so sure. What we have here is a convincing argument against gay separation laws.
DavidMixner.com: Separate But Unequal Means Gay Apartheid
-Andy
DavidMixner.com: Separate But Unequal Means Gay Apartheid
-Andy
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