Catholics Really Hate Gays

So the Catholic Church really has shown over the last several years that they can't really truly be happy unless they are oppressing the gays.

In Massachusetts and in Washington, DC, the Church has chosen not to offer adoption and foster services at all just in case they might one day have to allow a gay couple to foster or adopt a kid. Meanwhile, I can think of a lot more gay people I would trust around children, but whatever.

They also recently cut off all health benefits for all spouses of their employees in Washington, DC, because they don't want to accidentally support the spouse of any potential gay employees they may one day have. That's just fucked up.

So it should go without saying that in any discussion of immigration reform, the Catholics are really super against adding any kind of gay recognition to whatever bill ends up in Congress. This would be concerning, except they may not have the ability to stop our cause.

Have a look at the percentage of Catholics in these countries that already allow gays to sponsor their partners for immigration:

1. Australia - 25.8%
2. Belgium - 75% - (gay marriage also legal)
3. Brazil - 73.6%
4. Canada - 42.6% (gay marriage too)
5. Czech Repu. - 26.8%
6. Austria - 73.6%
7. France - 83-88%
8. Germany - 34%
9. Netherlands - 30% (gay marriage too)
10. Spain - 94% (gay marriage too)

Soon to be added:

* Ireland - 87.4%
* Portugal - 84.5%

By comparison, the Catholic population of the US sits at just 23.9%.

There is a whole strategy at Bilerco from blogger J. Todd (Tif) Fernandez which goes into quite a bit of detail on why the Catholic Church is going to have a hard time backing away from supporting immigration reform, even if the gays are included.

Strategically, the Catholic church hierarchy is in a classic conundrum. In this storm, the Catholics are threatening to walk away from the coalitions if they support our inclusion. But this time they have no where to go and they have a horrible position to maintain in doing so because the immigration reform messaging is all about "fairness and family cohesion" - "coalitions and human rights" - and "comprehensive" reform. People instantly understand that it is messed up when the USCCB says "fairness for everyone but THEM" - "coalitions of everyone but THEM" and "family unification for everyone but THEM". Simply put, we win this argument because it exposes the injustice so clearly.

I encourage you all to head on over to Bilerco to read more about it.

-Andy

Vote for Immigration Equality

It's an internet poll, but it could mean valuable resources for the cause of immigration equality. Change.org is currently running a contest to help with visibility of different political movements. I'm sketchy on the details, but so far immigration equality has made it past the first round into the second round. It looks like the issues that wins will get added support from this group.

For that reason, I've added a widget to this site that will make it super easy for you to click and vote. However, in case you are looking at this in a reader, you can go to this link to vote manually.

-Andy

New Sites added to Blogroll

In case you care what other sites might have information about immigration equality, I have several sites that are either dedicated exclusively to the cause, or at least mention it as a topic when there is news.

I added a couple new sites to the blogroll today, one of them being the Love Exiles Foundation. If you want to see more examples of people affected by US immigration inequality besides Alex and I, you can go to their stories section to see many more examples. It is heart breaking, but it is also empowering.

It is heart breaking, because Alex and I don't really want to leave our home and our friends behind, but it is empowering, because we have examples of others who were successful in finding a way to stay together and thrive in new homes. I know that if we have to, we'll be able to make that transition as well.

-Andy

New Immigration Equality Documentary

So Immigration Equality has created a new short documentary about the importance of the Uniting American Families Act. I hope all of you can take the 3 or 4 minutes to watch it and pass it around.



-Andy

Immigration Law Options

So let's talk for a minute about what laws would need to change for Alex and me to stay here.

Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) - This act would add the word "or permanent partner" to current immigration laws at any place where the word "spouse" currently appears. What this would do is allow me to sponsor him for permanent residency on the basis of our relationship. This bill has over 100 sponsors in the House and 20 sponsors in the Senate. Hearings were held in the House on June 3, but so far no vote has taken place. This bill has been introduced every years since 1997, but has never reached the floor of either house for a vote.

Re-Uniting American Families Act - This act is primarily in place to help those who are trying to sponsor family members to join them in this country. Currently, the waiting list for these types of visas is up to 23 years. yes, twenty three years. The creator of this bill, Mike Honda, has added language that would also include gay spouses as well.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform - there are several bills expected to be discussed this year in Congress. 3 of them currently include language that would allow me to sponsor Alex for a green card. It is expected that the others would have that language added if they actually reach the floor for a vote.

Defense of Marriage Act - this law, if repealed, would allow the federal government to recognize gay marriages performed in other states or countries, and would therefore make it possible for gay married Americans to sponsor their non-American spouses exactly the same way that straight married Americans are allowed to sponsor their non-American spouses today.

Based on what I've read, I think that some sort of immigration reform is likely this year, but I don't know if Congress will have the will to push through immigration reform that includes gay rights measures, so I'm not entirely confident that we will see comprehensive immigration reform pass that will help our cause.

I also don't expect to see UAFA go to the floor for a vote this year. Despite the fact that the person who introduced this bill in the House, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, is the chariman of the appropriate committee in the House, I'm really not confident that this is going to guarantee movement. Even more upsetting, even though the Democrats now have a filibuster-proof majority, I don't think it will even be voted on in the Senate.

It is incredibly frustrating to see the solution to many of your problems being discussed in Congress and then watching as absolutely no action takes place after the discussion. It is discouraging to watch the same bill get introduced every year fo 12 years without ever having seen a vote on it. It is disheartening to see a full Democratic majority in both houses of Congress not even have a vote on an issue of gay rights, when most of them claim to be in favor of full gay rights. If you are in favor, why don't you vote for it?

It's possible that something will change, but I really don't expect to see movement on these issues unless Obama wins a second term. We're quickly running out of runway for this term, because gay issues will be swept under the rught in 2010 for the mid-term elections, and after that it will be Presidential re-election time, so if it doesn't happen this year, it likely won't happen until late 2012 or sometime in 2013.

As a couple, Alex and I don't have that kind of time. That's the reason for this blog, and that's the reason that we're preparing our exile.

-Andy

Exploring our Options

I'm going to lay out some of the options that are available for Alex and me here, because maybe some of you might know of other options that we're not aware of, or maybe this list can help others in this situation.

As you know, Alex is on a non-immigrant F-1 visa. This means he can stay here as long as he is in school, but must leave when he finishes school. The only way to stay is to enter into optional practical training (OPT) which will allow him to work for 1 year after graduation. At the end of that period, he must enroll in another school program or leave the country.

1. We can find another country - this is the option that gives us the most control and the option we are spending the most time on at this point. However, there are roadblocks to this option. One or both of us needs to find a job, and if only one of us does, we would only be able to move to a country that allows same sex visa sponsorship. If neither of us can find a job, we can't move.

Our current search is focused around Vancouver, Canada, Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia.

2. Alex can go back to school - neither of us likes this option. We don't want more debt, and Alex is ready to be able to work. We would like to be able to get to the point where we are saving a lot of money instead of taking out loans for school every few months.

3. Whoever hires Alex for his OPT period can sponsor him for an H-1B visa. The good news here is that if this happens, he'll qualify in the Master's degree pool, and in that pool, he is pretty much guaranteed a visa. In his last OPT period, he did not win the undergraduate degree H-1B visa lottery, so that was $2,000 in lawyer's fees down the drain.

4. Green Card Lottery - every year the US government makes available 100,000 immigrant visas in a lottery. People from around the world are allowed to apply, and those who are chosen are allowed to go through the process to get a green card. The problem is that millions apply during the month-long entry window, and last year less than 100 people from Alex's home country were chosen. He's applied for that visa every year, but has not yet been chosen.

5. Change in immigration laws - There are several laws that could be changed that would allow us to put down roots and stay here. This is definitely both the easiest and the hardest option. It is the easiest because we wouldn't have to uproot our lives to move away, but it is the hardest because we really have no control over when or if this would happen, and we have no ability to impact that timeline.

So we have some options, but none of them are really very good.

-Andy

An introduction

Alex and I met in 2003. I won't bore you with the details, but we became very close very quickly. By 2004 we were living together, and we have been living together ever since.

While we have both always been in favor of same-sex marriage, it wasn't until we got serious that we realized just how important it would be to our future.

You see, Alex is not an American. He is a student who lives in the United States temporarily on a student visa, and will be required to leave the country once his studies are complete. With marriage, I could sponsor Alex for a green card based on the fact that we are married. Without marriage, even though I pay the bills, even though we have lived together for 5 years and have been together for 6, even though we have a joint checking account which is his only source of money, the law sees us as strangers.

Because of this, Alex and I are planning our exile. We are looking at what we need to do in order to leave the country together until the day when the laws are changed and we are allowed to come back to this country as a couple.

This blog will meander along our path, discussing our strategies and plans for either finding a way to remain here, or finding a way to leave together.

-Andy