I am a British National in the UK who has been privileged to share the last eleven years with my partner who is from Texas. We have a daughter who is doing well at school and has her eye on going to University eventually. We have been lawful Civil Partners under UK law for almost 6 years and enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as a married couple.
Eventually my partner and daughter want to return home to the US with me to start a family business and be closer to the American side of the family. Sadly as you know this will not be possible under current US laws. I happened by chance on the UAFA and with it a glimmer of hope.
Too many people posting on this website have to make the difficult choice of conducting a relationship from afar or leaving their homeland for more genial shores. Some choose the path of illegal immigration. None of these options are acceptable to me or my family.
I consider UAFA to be a humanitarian piece of legislation which will allow people who have made strong and supportive families together (albeit non-traditional) to maintain those family units.
I certainly feel like any other family - we pay our taxes, worry about our child’s well-being, education and future. We observe the law and try to be good honest members of the community. I believe we have succeeded here in the UK. All we want now is the same respect and value in the US.
When will the US extend the basic human rights it grants others to LGBT couples and their children? I find it staggering to ask this question in 2011 when many countries including my own have addressed this most distressing dilemma.
Okay, so this actually IS news worth reporting: On Friday, Sept. 23, the very first Republican, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [FL18] of the Miami, Florida area, cosponsored H.R. 1116, the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill to repeal the despicable Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), without whose existence, there would be no need for UAFA or this site.
AmericaBlog Gay reported on August 3 that Ms. Ros-Lehtinen was just joined by New York Republican Richard Hanna as the second Republican member of the LGBT caucus in the House. The article went on to encourage that both of these Republicans also sponsor the repeal-DOMA bill:
Maybe now Hanna and Ros-Lehtinen should just take the plunge and cosponsor H.R. 1116, the Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals DOMA. They’d be the first Republican cosponsors in either the House or Senate. And, as members of the Equality Caucus, it just makes sense.
Well, now one has. Calls, letters, office visits to Mr. Hanna in his Congressional District, perhaps?
Washington, DC
319 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3665
Fax: 202-225-1891
Auburn, NY
110 Genesee St., Suite 110
Auburn, NY 13021
Phone: 315-252-6700
Fax: 315-252-6709
Cortland, NY Office
18 Tompkins St.
Cortland, NY 13045
Phone: 607-756-2470
Fax: 607-756-2472
Utica, NY Office
258 Genesee St.
Utica, NY 13502
Phone: 315-724-9740
Fax: 315-724-9746
Now that the state of New York has legalized state-level (that is, “small-rights”) marriage, perhaps that event can be leveraged to persuade Mr. Hanna of the need to remove the one Federal law that is preventing all New York marriage licenses from carrying the same full legal weight.
When you talk to him, remind him that state-level marriage amounts to little more than a coupon when the vast majority of marriage rights (1,127 out of 1,400) reside at the Federal — not the State — level.
Remember: neither repeal of DOMA nor passage of UAFA will happen without both massive support among Democratic members AND significant support from Republican members. No one party can do it alone.
Fight for your meager scraps of decency, but don’t wait for full equality: in the meantime, arrange your life as best you can such that you and your loved one can remain together as long as possible. DO NOT DEPEND ON THE GOVERNMENT HELPING YOU, because they simply will not — until they finally have no other choice.
The UAFA-related blogosphere is alive with reports of the bill being re-introduced into Congress. This will seem like a wet blanket, but my jaded response is… so what?
The bill (and its predecessor) has been introduced into every subsequent Congress since the year 2000, and it has never come close to passing. To be fair, every year support has increased, and in the last Congress, the 111th, we garnered more co-sponsors than ever before. We were told by Democratic leaders that in order to get a floor vote in the house, we would have to show the support of a majority of the ruling (then-Democratic) caucus. In the 111th Congress (2009-2010) there were 255 Democrats in the House, a majority of which would be 128. We reached that number on Sept. 16, 2011. Did we get our floor vote? No, not even by the end of the session, at which time we had accumulated a record-breaking 135 co-sponsors. read more…
Two big headlines that I will always recall, in one paper:
“Defense of Marriage Act Sails Through Senate”
and
“Employment Non-discrimination Act Fails to Pass”
It was September 1996, and these were my welcome messages from the United States government after my year-long, round-the-world trip. read more…
America’s unjust immigration law, which prohibits an American citizen from sponsoring a foreign-born, non-US citizen, same-sex partner is destroying my family. Currently, U.S. policy permits a heterosexual American citizen to sponsor a heterosexual foreign-born partner for immigration purposes, as long as the two have met at least once in person in the past two years; Same-sex binational couples are denied such an opportunity.
I am a United States citizen and have been in a same-sex, binational relationship with a British citizen for the past four years. Our relationship has endured because of our commitment to each other despite the mental and physical hardships and expense that U.S. laws have forced us to endure. I am separated for great lengths of time from the love of my life, from my support system, from the person I intend to spend the rest of my life with. We have spent thousands of dollars, money which was and is difficult to raise, in order to spend short periods of time together. read more…
The 2010 mid-term elections have come and gone, and the surprisingly productive “lame duck” session ended the 111th Congress with a few long-fought-for victories, including, seemingly miraculously, the legislative repeal of DADT, the openly discriminatory military policy of “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell,” signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993. read more…
Editor’s note: This account came in as part of another posting, in the form of a letter to President Obama and to Congressional leaders. Reproduced here so that it can be listed independently as one of “our stories.”
Dear President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schumer, and Chairwoman Lofgren:
I am writing to ask for your support for the Uniting American Families Act. It will most likely be unimportant to you that I left USA in 1986 because of my longstanding relationship with a same-sex partner of British nationality. read more…
I have sent the letter below every month for the last three months. Not one reply to date. I will continue to send to those addressed until someone replies. read more…
No one is going to hand us anything.
The Democrats will give us only lip service, when it’s convenient. The Republicans outright hate our guts.
I no longer believe that we will ever gain parity through the electoral process. Mr. Boehner PLEASE — prove me wrong! read more…
Our momentum just keeps on going!
Maybe it’s because it’s election time, and some candidates are making the calculation that support of UAFA helps them with some, very motivated voters without hurting them with voters in general — wh0 knows? But I won’t complain about these numbers:
133 in the House, 25 in the Senate read more…
