Comments on: Same-sex couples seek immigration benefit

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:44:23 +0000

time to boycott Jamaica for good!

By: Mr. Coffee

Mr. Coffee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:10:58 +0000

Interesting to read this just now as I sit in a hotel outside SFO waiting for the plane that will take me, my husband of 15 years, and my 80 year old parents off to Thailand where my parents will live out the rest of their years in our care.
Of course, they would have preferred to stay in the family home of 60 years, but I’m an only child, long-term care is not an option, and my husband and I can’t come to be with them in the USA because my husband is not a US citizen.
Nice to know the conservatives are so pro-family. Tell Mom and Dad about that.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:34:06 +0000

Sessions, go home, you are not needed!!!!!

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:11:31 +0000

I am one of the binational couples. I live in Europe now because current laws would not allow my partner and I to live together in the US. I feel like I live in exile of the US, the country where I have paid taxes for many years, to a government that believes I am a second class citizen. This is the ultimate of discrimination. Yet, the US fights for Iraqis’ civil rights. It makes no sense.

By: SteveMD2

SteveMD2 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:50:40 +0000

“A key ally in past immigration fights, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said it would not support a measure that has a same-sex provision.”

Well, who else would you expect to object, other then the vatican and southern christians.

It was the vatican who gave the world the hatred of the Jews, which hitler leveraged into power and 50 Million died, including 6 million people in WWII. To put it bluntly, the vatican is guilty via their past hate speech of causing Genocide.

And the Southern White Christians eg so Baptists. who were the cultural/religious bedrock of slavery and the creators of segregation. What they did for all practical purposes amount to Genocide as well. Especially of the black family. They talk about protecting marriage and the family. While their history has been to destroy it.

To say nothing of the so called christians like Sens. Sanford and Ensign, the hypocrites supreme, who prattle about the family all the while destroying their own.

But what it is all about from the religious conservatives point of view is not gay marriage. That is just a whipping boy to hide behind.

For if these religions were really undersstood by the populace at large, 90% of the good religious people whose minds haven’t been totally poisoned, would find themselves a church of Love. And leave their churches of hatred and hypocrisy

By: SARK

SARK — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:23:19 +0000

My partner and I have been together for 11 years. He is Australian and I am American. We settled in Australia because there are immigration laws here that allow same sex couples to stay together on the grounds of their relationship. I believe we should be able to live in either partner’s country of origin.

As an American citizen, I assert the right to have my same-sex partner live with me in the United States. This is a human rights issue and has nothing to do backward thinking. If we want our country to move forward, we need to think forward. Get over it and get with it.

By: cm

cm — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:32:36 +0000

Tammy, you’re one of the lucky ones. By the time the UK passed immigration reform, it was too late for my partner and I. 7 years down the tubes. The stress takes its toll.

I’d love to view this as a step forward, but as it has snowball’s chance in hell of passing, it’s just a sad reminder.

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:59:56 +0000

My partner and I have been together 8 years, we met during university in Canada and moved back to the US (where I am a citizen) after graduation. He has always lived and worked here legally, using TN status and more recently he had obtained H1B status and his employer of 4 years was working to get permanent residence for him, this process had been going on for about 2 years (with no clue as to when or if the government would approve anything), he was recently a casualty of the economic downturn and lost his job… he was offered a new job within a week, but the new employer is balking at the prospect of having to deal with the red tape of immigration, and doesnt want to sponsor him for permanent residence. So now we are forced with the prospect of him living with temporary status (if the new employer is even willing to help with this), living basically day to day, making it harder to visit his family in Canada, adding to the stresses of normal life, mortgage, taxes, all because we never know exactly how long he will be able to remain in the country. I get so tired of hearing people say “why doesnt he just apply for citizenship”… if only it were that easy….

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:14:27 +0000

I am the one of them. i have an expire travel VISA. & i married to my Partner in California. but, it won’t change my illegal status because of the DOMA under the federal Law. I lived under the dark cloud over my head past 9 years.

Please visit http://www.immigrationequality.org/

they can tell you more about this bill. and please give us a hand.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:54:04 +0000

The 36000 figure grossly underestimates the number of binational same sex couples affected by this as it only addressed those included in the US census. It fails to include those of us who were forced to leave the US already in order to be with our same sex spouses/partners. I’ve been living in the UK for a number of years now, because I wasn’t able to sponsor my British wife for immigration, in spite of the fact that we were married in Canada. I hope this does change this year.