Comments on: Emergency Senate bill saves lesbian couple from deporation

By: flyonthewall

flyonthewall — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:14:32 +0000

To All who have loved ones waiting in line for visas to come to the U.S. to join you… Dianne Feinstein and other politicians are writing bills to keep certain illegals in the U.S. and by doing so the # of visas issued to their country of origin is reduced by the # of pet projects the senators have chosen to endorse. Your relatives future is at stake due to these political maneuvers. Read the legislation. Don’t let these politicians bend the rules and deprive the people who are obeying the law. S.867 and S.121 are just 2 of the bills sponsored by Sen. Feinstein. Those 2 bills knock 5 people off the list of legal visas issued to those countries of origin. Documentation can be found at GovTrack.us and Thomas library of Congress.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:25:02 +0000

I agree with the comments regarding Feinstein – she wants the PR firestorm to subside. She has never signed onto UAFA in the past. She can change that and be a true leader on this issue by signing on immediately and getting the rest of her colleagues in the Dem. caucus and whatever senate republicans she has influence with to do the same. If this is about fundatmental fairness, why do pols like Feinstein lag behind on this? And she wonders why she got the “pink brick” for her poor record on LGBT rights.

By: Melanie Nathan

Melanie Nathan — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 01:53:49 +0000

Okay Mr. INEXILE – this is insulting to people like me. I worked very hard on the case for Ms. Tan and every moment of the day was spent including our brothers and sister in exile. YES I personally worked hard for five weeks with no financial remuneration. I gave up my own work. When I worked I was working with you in mind. Every single mention to a politician of any Gay or Lesbian person’s plight is another feather in the cap for your visibility – and another step forward to UAFA.

What SHirley did for you was couragous and you owe her an apology. She is the first to receive this extensive mainstream visibility, and she went public to the press after being a very shy and private person. She did it because us gay activists asked her to. She did it because now that she is safe (for 1 year only – by the way) she plans to continue the fight for UAFA and intends bringing the men and women like you HOME where you belong. Some stop wining about your misfortune, egt off the jealousy potty and call LOVEEXILE.ORG and get involved! Now. Melanie Nathan http://www.oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com

By: InExile

InExile — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:05:18 +0000

As a gay man with a foreign born partner for the last 14 years, I am happy for Shirley Tan. It unfortunately does not help us and may others like us that have already left the US and are living in exile in other countries. This fix by the Senator was a way to just make a potential PR nightmare go away and at the same time put a feather in her own hat! Now, I guess we wait for another lesbian couple with two beautiful children that are upstanding citizens of their community and church to come along to open our politicians eyes and do something. I have written them all and never once received a response to any of my letters. Our wonderful life in LA was destroyed by having to move 3 years ago, now we wait for the law to change as our life passes us by. Imagine if your future depended on our politicians, it is not a good position to be in!

By: badcowboy

badcowboy — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:24:06 +0000

I really want this couple to be together, but this bill is as bad as the terry schiavo bill that was introduced to keep her husband from pulling the plug. It would be hard to argue that the terry schiavo bill was bad and that this legislation is good.

Passing laws that favor only certain people and not others is a bad idea. The UAFA needs to be passed and passed quickly.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:37:58 +0000

a bit unfair…so are we supposed to just let this couple be deported while we may have to struggle for another 10 years to get UAFA in place? Until UAFA is in place, we should be fighting to save all deserving and otherwise law-abiding couples from deportation who are currently under threat of actual deportation (those couples who want and welcome such help)even on a one by one basis via Congress if we have to.
That may also prompt the other “Feinsteins” in Congress to stand up and say enough is enough! we have to fix this way of doing things and have to fix it now! “The ball was set in motion” by this and it is up to the LGBT community to keep this ball in motion and bring another deportation case to Congress and another and another and another until this gets fixed!

Meanwhile we should all redouble our efforts to get UAFA passed and push Congress again and again on that and push Congress to get the federal level DOMA repealed. I have written my reps in Congress about repealing the federal level of DOMA and regardless of whether Mr. Obama thinks the time is right for repealing federal DOMA or not, I am going to write my reps and my MD senators in Congress again about working toward a repeal of DOMA and about UAFA. A lot of unfair regulations and laws are backed up by the Federal level of DOMA and once that type of DOMA is repealed then other laws can be repealed more readily and the unfair system of anti LGBT laws will start falling down one after another like a set of standing dominos. This requires constant action until it all gets done. Once the momentum has been started, the moomentum has to be maintained.

By: Douglas Gibson Jr

Douglas Gibson Jr — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:06:15 +0000

Senators can not introduce legislation on the House floor. Senator Feinstein introduced S867 on the Senate Floor.

By: Rodney Moore

Rodney Moore — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:51:52 +0000

Marriage equality and only marriage equality would solve this issue, not just for this bi-national couple, but everyone.

It’s time to stop asking for piecemeal legislation which creates a patchwork of confusing laws and leaves too many loopholes for homophobes in power to exploit.

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:29:43 +0000

Here, I found the rest of the story, it was a private bill.

a private bill has been introduced in Congress on behalf of Shirley Tan. Melanie reports “When I spoke to Jay [Shirley's partner] today she was crying with joy and said the whole family including the boys were absolutely overwhelmed with emotion.”

The immediate impact of the bill will be that Shirley Tan should not be deported until the end of this Congress in December 2010. Actual passage of the private bill is unlikely. So the only guarantee that Shirley will not be torn from her partner and children is passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA).

By: Bud Burgoon-Clark

Bud Burgoon-Clark — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:44:03 +0000

I know you’re understaffed and overworked, but … two GLARING errors in the first PARAGRAPH?

1. Deportation, not deporation
2. SENATOR Feinstein spoke on the floor of the SENATE, and NOT the House.