LGBT Binational Families Make Front Page Headlines

Posted on 09/13/2010 @ 09:30 AM

This morning’s Washington Post includes front page coverage of the campaign to end discrimination against LGBT binational families.

In a profile of local couples impacted by discriminatory immigration laws, reporter Shankar Vedantam writes that, “The demand by these couples to gain the same immigration rights as heterosexuals is supported by key members of Congress.”

One “Washington gay couple, who requested that their names not be published because the foreign partner is a Latino man currently living in the country under false pretenses and the American partner is a prominent Republican whose identity could easily lead authorities to the other man, said gays and lesbians fall in love in the same unpredictable way as straight people,” the paper notes. “Sometimes, the object of that love happens to be a foreigner.”

"'When you love someone, it feels the same,' said the Latino man, who is in the country on a tourist visa and has been working in violation of it. He is afraid that his immigration status could be exposed at any time, and he could be forced to leave. He travels outside the country periodically to keep his tourist visa valid, always making sure when he presents his visa at the border that he has an air ticket showing when he plans to leave the United States."

"I am insecure because I am worried," he said. "If I have trouble with the police, they will send me back to my country. I have a partner. All my life is here. My family lives in Mexico City, but I feel comfortable here. I drive everyday - if I have an accident or the police stops me and ask me for my papers, I am afraid."

"Every time he leaves, I wonder is he going to come back to his house, to our friends, to my family," added his partner.

Noting that “advocates for such an overhaul say, there are also powerful social and political forces that could move changes forward,” Vendantam adds that, “the issue is personal as well as political” for the families who are impacted.

Immigration Equality told Vendantam we remain confident that equal rights would be part of any overhaul. In the Senate, we noted, an immigration bill would have to pass through the Judiciary Committee, where Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) has been a strong backer of equal gay and lesbian immigration rights.

To read the full coverage from this morning’s Washington Post, click here.