We have now entered the holiday season. This is a time of warmth and good cheer. It's a time for families to gather and bask in the glow of the Christmas tree or the Hanukkah candles, or a time to enjoy the warmth of friends and family during Kwanzaa or for celebrations from other religions and cultures.
This is the warm and cozy holiday season when people exchange gifts, eat and drink special foods, and sing traditional songs and carols. Those songs might even be sung in two languages. Possibly a U.S. citizen has married a lovely person he or she met abroad and brought home to this country to share their lives together. And how wonderful, the foreign born person can obtain permanent legal residency in this country by marrying someone from this country. They are a binational married couple. Such a joyous holiday for both of them.
But wait! The above picture works only for heterosexual couples. When someone from a foreign country marries a U.S. citizen, the foreign citizen then qualifies for permanent legal U.S. residency. But that option is not available to binational gay or lesbian couples. They cannot marry in this country, except in Massachusetts. And the federal government does not recognize the marriages of same-sex couples wherever they occur. So many same-sex binational couples spend the holidays living in fear and wondering when a heartless federal government will drive them apart and send the non-citizen back to his or her country of origin.
In 2006, Human Rights Watch and Immigration Equality published a report documenting the separation of couples. Based on 2000 census data, Immigration Equality estimates there may be 10,000 gay or lesbian binational couples in California alone, with tens of thousands more in other states. Most of these couples deal every day with the fear of forced separation.
Federal legislation to right this wrong has been introduced in Congress. For seven years, there have been attempts in Congress to change federal immigration law to add a new category – permanent partner – to the list of family members a citizen or legal permanent resident can sponsor for immigration. The struggle is on again, with the Uniting American Families Act (HR 2221, S. 1328) pending in Congress. In the House, the bill was introduced by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-New York). Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced the bill in that chamber.
Permanent partners over 18 would have to prove they are in a committed relationship, are financially interdependent, and unable to legally marry, as is the case with homosexuals, whose unions, even if sanctioned abroad, are not recognized under federal law.
"It's a very discrete, limited fix to this problem," said Adam Francoeur, policy coordinator for Immigration Equality, a national group based in New York that is lobbying for binational couples' rights.
Nineteen countries now permit citizens or legal residents to sponsor same-sex permanent partners for legal residency. The United States is not among them. Countries that have changed laws to allow gay partners to immigrate include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, France, Switzerland, and Germany, among others. It is time for the United States to make this possible as well.
During this holiday season, no doubt you will be calling your family and friends to wish them well. Please add another person to your list. Please call Senator Dianne Feinstein at (202) 224-3841. Leave a message. Urge her to become a co-sponsor of the Permanent Partners Act, S. 1328, and urge her to make sure this bill moves forward. The bill is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee and Feinstein is a powerful member of that committee. Please call her soon.
Boyce Hinman is the chief lobbyist for the Lambda Letters Project based in Sacramento. For more information, visit http://www.lambdaletters.org.