MSNBC Interviews Binational Gay Couple Facing Deportation

PhoboQuotable - William Gheen

"Targeting anybody for importation into the country based on their sexuality doesn't sound like something that Congress should be messing with at all. They're looking to bring in anybody challenging the established culture inside the United States that they want to bring down. And though the majority culture of the United States for the last 200 years has been predominately European Christian, they are looking for anybody that would take issue with that. And, of course, Christianity preaches against sodomy." - William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, denouncing the Uniting American Families Act.

Expat Glenn Greenwald On UAFA

Today MNBC interviewed Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald about the pending Uniting American Families Act. Greenwald was forced to emigrate to Brazil in order to stay with his partner.

Love Exiles: Leif & Mo

Part of the reason for my trip to San Francisco is to see off my dear friend Leif, who is being forced to emigrate to New Zealand on Tuesday because the United States won't recognize his relationship with his husband, Mo. New Zealand, however, had no problem admitting Leif as Mo's partner. They suggest you visit Love Exiles, where binational couples discuss the fight for immigration equality in the United States.

PhoboQuotable - Peter LaBarbera

"This is just a really bad idea. We do not want to incentivize people practicing homosexuality to come into the United States -- it's that simple. There are people waiting in line for years and years, normal families, to legally immigrate into the United States. The idea that we would recreate the family to now include two men or two women instead of a mom and a dad, all the while importing more practicing homosexuals into the United States, is absurd. And this is very radical legislation." - Porno Pete LaBarbera, speaking the American Family Association's OneNewsNow.

In the above-linked article, the AFA mischaracterizes the Uniting American Families Act as "designed to allow illegal immigrants with American family members to stay in the country." The UAFA actually provides for legal residence for the "permanent partners of United States citizens and legal residents" and is only one part of the comprehensive immigration reform package now before Congress. Major evangelical groups have vowed to block immigration reform if it includes any mention of dirty queers.

Yesterday Politico noted that except for them damn homos, evangelicals are salivating at the prospect of millions of new converts (and their wallets). The president of the National Association of Evangelicals says, “When people migrate, they’re open to all kinds of change, including religious change." LGBT immigration attorney Lavi Soloway tells Politico that he isn't too worried about opposition from the religious right, adding, “We are a small issue. … I don’t think in the end we’re a deal breaker." I'm not so optimistic.

Citizen Non-Citizen

The NYCLU sends this today:

The NYCLU, in collaboration with the LGBT Community Center and the Office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler, looks at discrimination against LGBT families in our immigration system and the ongoing efforts to reform the system in Congress through the Uniting American Families Act and comprehensive immigration reform. Citizen/Non-Citizen highlights the heart wrenching story of Britta and Carla, a married same-sex binational couple living in New York City fighting to stay together in the United States. To find out more about the NYCLUs work in support of comprehensive immigration reform and to take action, visit our site.