Saying that now there's a president in the White House who is not a "guaranteed veto" for the legislation, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) last week re-introduced a bill seeking to enable gay Americans to sponsor their foreign same-sex partners for legal residency in the United States.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) re-introduced the companion bill in the Senate.

Speaking to reporters on a telephone conference call Thursday, February 12, Nadler said it would be hard to say what the "odds" are for the bill – the Uniting American Families Act – to pass.

Nadler's remarks to reporters were interrupted by a phone call from the White House but when he came back on the phone, the congressman said the call was about the economic stimulus package.

An Obama administration aide indicated the White House has not yet weighed in on the legislation.

But, as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, then-Senator Obama told the Human Rights Campaign that he supported the bill. And Nadler indicated that the change in the White House – and "positive signals" from Democratic committee leaders – has prompted him to make a "serious attempt" at passing the legislation.

Under the current Immigration and Naturalization Act, an American citizen can sponsor his or her opposite-sex spouse for a green card, representing legal residency.

The Leahy-Nadler bills seek to amend that law to add the words "permanent partner" to those qualified to seek such residency.

Permanent partner is defined as an adult who is in a committed, intimate, financially interdependent relationship with another adult in "which both parties intend a lifelong commitment."

The promotion of family unity has long been part of federal immigration policy, said Leahy, in a statement released Thursday, "and we should honor that principle by providing all Americans the opportunity to be with their loved ones."

Leahy estimated that about 35,000 same-sex couples with one of the partners being a foreign citizen live in the United States.

"It is all but certain that many of these couples will eventually be forced to make a choice with which no American should be faced," said Leahy, "to choose between the country they love and the person they love."

During the telephone conference call, one couple who lives in Vermont told how the foreign partner cannot get a green card even though the couple obtained a civil union license in that state. The foreign partner, identified as Janet from the United Kingdom, noted the irony that the cat she brought with her to the United States has legal permission to be here permanently through a "pet visa," but that she, herself, cannot obtain such status.

A woman, identified as Lee from South Africa, said she lives in New York City with her partner and their two sons. She said she lives in constant fear of being deported and separated from her family.

Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, a national organization working to improve immigration law to help LGBT people with foreign partners, wrote Obama in December. In the letter, Tiven urged Obama to both support the bill and take other actions to help LGBT people in immigration matters.

Out4Immigration, another LGBT advocacy group, expressed its hope that the bill will get a hearing. It noted this was the sixth time the legislation has been introduced.

"Today marks a fresh beginning for change toward the discrimination faced by same-sex binational couples," said Mickey Lim, vice president of the organization.

On introduction, the House bill had 74 sponsors and the Senate bill had 12.