March Madness at Immigration Equality
By Stephanie Harig on 03/24/2011 @ 03:40 PM
You may not care if Tennessee and UConn finally meet up in the Final Four (and we’re talking women’s basketball here — I am officially boycotting the men’s tournament, but that’s a different story), but you have to admit that the spirit of March Madness is everywhere. And even though March is almost over, the fact that the championship game is in early April means we’ve all got (at least!) a few more weeks of this madness.
Immigration Equality has not been immune from the infectious madness of March (and early April). As you probably know, we’re working on a DOMA challenge in the courts and calling on the Obama Administration to stop deporting married, binational LGBT couples. But we are also in the final stages before reintroduction of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in both the House and Senate. Getting relief for binational families is a priority, and Immigration Equality is working on all fronts to make that happen.
Now, in an ideal world, more people would care about the women’s NCAA tournament AND policymakers would just do the right thing: pass UAFA and extend to LGBT citizens and residents of the U.S. the right to sponsor their partners for immigration. But the political world is much more complicated – even more complicated than an NCAA bracket! Policymakers need to be convinced to do the right thing. And that means they need to hear from you.
Luckily, constituents such as yourself have more say in the democratic process than just trying to predict how far Green Bay will actually go in the tournament or whether UAFA will be passed. Our elected officials – Representatives, Senators, and the President – are supposed to be responsive to us and our needs. But they can’t do that effectively if they don’t know what your needs are.
So if you want your Senators and Representatives to support UAFA, tell them! Immigration Equality has made contacting your Members of Congress really easy! Just click here to tell Congress to support LGBT families! (See? Much easier than predicting if Baylor has enough talent around Brittney Griner to vie for the title!)
One last thing though: letters to Members of Congress are much more effective if you personalize them. So take a moment and add a personal touch to the language that Immigration Equality has provided. And once you’ve sent your own letter, tell a friend to do the same!
As March winds down, and both the NCAA tournament and the drive toward UAFA reintroduction heat up, Members of Congress need to hear from you. Neither Maya Moore nor Immigration Equality can do it on our own – we need your support and your advocacy to make sure all of UAFA’s co-sponsors return and then some!
So what are you waiting for? Click here to send a letter of support for UAFA to your Member of Congress.
We can’t win this without you!
Stephanie Harig is one of our public policy interns. She's a 2009 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and is pursuing a masters in public policy and women's studies at George Washington University. She's originally from Ohio and likes sports metaphors.
Comments
Leave a Comment