Events
Join us in NYC, DC, or LA for Pride!
By Christopher Edwards on 06/01/2010 @ 10:28 AM
Each June, our community comes together to remember (and celebrate) those who have fought for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. Pride month marks our long struggle for equality.
This year, Immigration Equality supporters will march in pride parades in Washington, DC, New York City, and Los Angeles. Together, we are building support for immigration reform that helps all families, including LGBT families, too.
Please join us on June 12 in Washington … June 13 in Los Angeles … and June 27 in New York City. RSVP on Facebook or email me directly if you have questions about participating in DC or NYC. If you’re in LA, Charlie Gu is our contingent coordinator and would love to have your help. Please email him with questions regarding our presence there.
Join us this Pride season as our families tell congress to pass LGBT-inclusive immigration reform.
Be Committed
By Gilbert Elizabeth on 05/27/2010 @ 05:35 PM
Throughout my travels around the world, I’ve discovered just how magical — and unexpectedly easy — it can be to fall in love. What is even more surprising, though, is just how difficult it can be for some to keep their families together. Whether you meet your soul mate in Brazil, or in your own backyard — and whether they happen to be the same gender as you, or not — should not matter. But under our country’s current immigration system, it unfortunately still does. That’s just not right.
It is time to change our immigration laws and honor the love and commitment of all of our families by making it possible for them to be together.
I hope you will join me at Immigration Equality’s Safe Haven Awards, on June 8th in New York City as we raise awareness, and funds, to end the unconscionable discrimination lesbian and gay binational families face under our current immigration system. I am proud to keynote this year’s ceremony, which also supports Immigration Equality’s critical legal services work on behalf of LGBT immigrants, asylum seekers and detainees.
This cause is personal for me. As many of you know, my own partner was detained at the U.S. border when he returned to the United States with me. No couple — and no family — should face separation or exile because of who they love. It is unacceptable that our government should do anything but work to ensure loving families remain together. Instead, it is tearing them apart.
That is why we must take action today. And it is why I am so proud to keynote this year’s event.
If you purchase a VIP ticket today, or join our host committee for the event, I’ll also be happy to present you with a signed copy of my book, Committed, about my own experience as one half of a binational couple. And I promise you an unforgettable evening of fellow travelers who are equally committed to celebrating our love, honoring our families and fixing our broken immigration system.
I know, first hand, what this fight for equality means to so many of you. I am committed to standing with you and supporting Immigration Equality’s work to end this injustice.
I hope you will join us on June 8th, and “be committed,” too.
Immigration Equality to Receive 2010 Harmony Award from Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington
By Steve Ralls on 05/13/2010 @ 03:25 PM
On Saturday evening, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington will honor Immigration Equality with its “Harmony Award.” The GMCW is one of Washington’s most respected, and admired, arts institutions, and recently performed at President Obama’s inaugural festivities.
All of us at Immigration Equality are honored, and proud, to be receiving this award, and will be on-hand for Saturday’s evening’s ceremony.
This year’s event, titled A Night in Venice, features live and silent auctions, dinner, live entertainment from members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, a presentation to 2010 Harmony Award Honorees, and is followed by an after-party Carnevale and dessert, reflecting this year’s Venetian theme.
The GMCW Harmony Award recognizes individuals and organizations that exemplify the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington’s mission to “affirm the place of gay people in society.” Previous recipients have included Hon. Adrian M. Fenty, Mayor, District of Columbia; The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit , GLBT community activists Peter D. Rosenstein and Frank Kameny; the Washington, DC, Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); The Mautner Project, the National Lesbian Health Organization; Food & Friends; Councilmember David Catania; and the international law firm of Holland & Knight.
Other honorees for the evening include John Berry, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management; Deacon Maccubbin and Jim Bennett, founders of Washington’s legendary Lambda Rising bookstore; and Jeff Buhrman, artistic director of the Gay Men’s Chorus.
Tickets for A Night in Venice are still available, and can be purchased at the GMCW website.
AIDS Walk NY: Walking the walk with the Immigration Equality HIV Ban Busters Team
By Christopher Edwards on 05/04/2010 @ 09:30 PM
Against the backdrop of the raging HIV epidemic and resulting policy debate, Immigration Equality was founded as a response to a very specific kind of scapegoating of people with HIV/AIDS: the HIV Travel and Immigration Ban, which specifically singled out persons living with HIV as unwelcome visitors and immigrants. We have worked tireless since 1994 to counter the perspective that people with HIV were pariahs, that HIV/AIDS was a disease that disqualified automatically people from entering the country. Every day, our legal team answer urgent questions from individuals, families and attorneys of those about 22% are HIV-related. We have been on the frontline of the disease from our first days.
In 2010 our work paid off, the ban was finally lifted. Now that we’ve ended the HIV ban, we must work to end HIV.
Enter our Immigration Equality HIV Ban Busters team for the 2010 AIDS Walk NY. Our staff, friends and clients are all joining as we work to raise money for NY-based HIV services organizations beginning with NY’s legendary GMHC. And we need your help. We’d like you to walk with us. You can register here at our team page. We’ve set a goal of recruiting 30 people. We are on our way. Please walk with us May 16th.
Today I’ve been highlighting on @IEquality statistics on HIV in New York. To recap some of the more harrowing numbers: right now, more than 100,000 New Yorkers are living with HIV and thousands don’t know they are infected. According to the NYC Department of Health, New York city has more AIDS cases than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington DC — combined. It’s not hyperbole then of them to the say that New York City “remains the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.“
Digging deeper into these numbers, HIV/AIDS affects minority communities at a more disproportional rate than any other public health crisis. More than 80% of all new AiDS diagnosis are within the African Americans and Hispanics. The death rate from AIDS is 9 times higher for black women, 6 times higher black men, and 4 times higher for Hispanics than comparable groups of whites. If we look at NYC and Manhattan statistics certain things stand out too: 1 in 26 men living in Manhattan are HIV positive, 1 in 40 African Americans in all of NYC are HIV positive, and black men 40-49 are particularly hard hit citywide and especially in Manhattan.
If you are unable to walk, we welcome your sponsorship of our team. You can also sponsor our team at our team page. Either way, you’ll be helping to make sure that HIV prevention and healthcare services continue their reach in NYC.
Together we beat the HIV ban, together we can beat HIV.
This Saturday: Immigration Reform Rallies From Coast-to-Coast
By Steve Ralls on 04/28/2010 @ 08:34 PM
This Saturday, in cities and towns across the country, immigration rights supporters will march, rally and call on Congress to pass fair and humane comprehensive immigration reform. All of us at Immigration Equality urge our supporters to join our allies and bring a visible, supportive LGBT presence to this weekend’s activities.
From New York and Washington, to Phoenix and Los Angeles, these marches will send a strong, clear message that we support comprehensive reform for all families . . . and stand against divisive tactics and laws that tear our loved ones apart and endanger their safety.
To find a march near you, click here. Then, show up on Saturday with an Immigration Equality shirt (if you have one), or a rainbow flag, and stand in solidarity with those who are working to fix our broken immigration system.
For more information, visit Reform Immigration for America online.
It's Immigrant Heritage Week!
By Rachel Tiven on 04/15/2010 @ 06:12 AM
New York City’s seventh annual Immigrant Heritage Week begins today. The initiative is organized by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, “to celebrate the contributions of immigrants and the diversity that makes New York City so great. This year there will be over 170 fun and free events in all five boroughs with something for everyone from musical performances, film screenings, events for children and the whole family, workshops and discussions, and much more.” A full schedule of events is online here.
If you’re lucky enough to be an LGBT immigrant, head on down to New York’s LGBT Community Center on Tuesday, April 20 for the 2nd Annual LGBTQ Immigration Fair and Cultural Event. Immigration Equality is one of the event sponsors, and it will be a great afternoon of information and entertainment, plus free, confidential HIV testing. More info here.
Standing on the Side of Love
By Steve Ralls on 04/14/2010 @ 03:08 PM
Immigration Equality’s D.C. staff joined our allies with the Standing on the Side of Love campaign today on Capitol Hill as they delivered 15,000 postcards in support of LGBT equality and humane immigration reform. Thank you to everyone who joined us, especially Erwin de Leon (pictured), who shared his story of being in a binational relationship, but being unable to obtain a green card despite recently marrying his partner of 11 years in Washington, D.C.
Dozens of faith leaders, immigration and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) activists gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds today to deliver a message to Congress – Americans Stand on the Side of Love.
“We are bringing words of compassion and love to Capitol Hill, not homophobic and racist slurs,” said Adam Gerhardstein, campaign manager for the Standing on the Side of Love (SSL) campaign, referring to the treatment that some members of congress faced on Capitol Hill prior to the district work period.
During that period, the SSL campaign gathered 10,000 signatures on a petition for full equality for GLBT people and an additional 5,000 signatures supporting immigration reform. Those signatures were delivered to Congress this morning, and the unique gathering held large blue signs stapled with the immigration postcards to spell out, “WE STAND ON THE SIDE OF LOVE.” With one letter per sheet, the message stretched 50 feet.
“We are delivering petitions and postcards to lift up the importance of love for each other,” Gerhardstein said. “We will not allow extreme voices and acts of violence to overshadow the needs of the Americans who are most vulnerable and urgently need the protection of the law.”
This event brought together two issues that are not clearly related, but often intersect: immigration and equality for GLBT people. The SSL campaign works on both issues and many others – standing with anyone who faces exclusion, oppression, or violence because of who they are and lifting them up with the power of love. There are unique challenges faced at the intersection of identities, but those challenges can be overcome by love and respect.
“Unlike straight married couples, John could not sponsor me for legal permanent residency because we happen to be gay,” said Erwin De Leon, the immigrant half of a local bi-national couple who spoke about his experience during the event. “I need Congress to stand on the side of love with my family by passing comprehensive immigration reform and provide equality under the law for GLBT people.”
The SSL campaign is working to ensure that people like Erwin and his husband are taken into account and their concerns are addressed by Members of Congress. John Crestwell, Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis and Campaign Spokesperson, summed up the sentiments of those gathered, “We stand on the side of love with our neighbors who are shut out, dehumanized, or attacked just because of who they are,” said Crestwell. “No one is ‘okay to hate.’ We are all God’s children and all have inherent worth and dignity.”
Standing on the Side of Love is a campaign sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Association and promotes respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We believe that no person of any immigrant status, race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, ability level, or political view should be dehumanized through acts of exclusion, oppression, or violence.
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