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 Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization and our letter writing campaign is now in its 70th week. We must continue to keep this issue out front and make sure UAFA’s language is included in any bill that moves forward. Our efforts have gained us a LOT of co-sponsors in both the House (24) and Senate (5), and it’s important to remember the impact that continued, consistent grass roots efforts have. WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! This week, we are focusing on five more members of the House – Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY-6), Rep. Travis Childers (D-MS-1), Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL-12), Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN-4) & Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC-7)! Click the link to send an e-mail to all of these members of Congress, and please also forward this on to as many family and friends, and share on Facebook, Twitter, etc… We need as many people to sign this each week as possible, and the change.org link makes doing this quick and easy! We are also working on getting UAFA-supportive resolutions passed by city councils all around the country, and getting State, County and City elected officials to send letters to members of Congress urging them to support UAFA. Please contact Tom Tierney – if you can help (it’s very easy!!). http://out4immigration.blogspot.com
The CA senate yesterday voted 23 -12 that included bipartisan support and passed AJR 15 (Assembly Joint Resolution 15) which formally requests that the United States Congress pass and President Obama sign the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The bill, if passed, will allow an LGBT American and permanent citizens to sponsor their foreign born partner for immigration. The resolution was passed by the assembly in September last year. You can read the news coverage here. As part of the grassroots campaign, Out4Immigration and its allies have managed to secure support from about 20 cities We need more of you on the ground to help us get more support for the passage of UAFA and its inclusion in any CIR bill! It is very easy to do – please contact Tom Tierney for more information! www.out4immigration.org
 (No Ratings Yet) Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization and our letter writing campaign is now in its 69th week. We must continue to keep this issue out front and make sure UAFA’s language is included in any bill that moves forward. Our efforts have gained us a LOT of co-sponsors in both the House (24) and Senate (5), and it’s important to remember the impact that continued, consistent grass roots efforts have. WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! This week, we are focusing on five more members of the House – Let’s finally hit our goal of 500 signatures! Click the link below to send an e-mail to all of these members of Congress, and please also forward this on to as many family and friends, and share on Facebook, Twitter, etc… We need as many people to sign this each week as possible, and the change.org link makes doing this quick and easy! We are also working on getting UAFA-supportive resolutions passed by city councils all around the country, and getting State, County and City elected officials to send letters to members of Congress urging them to support UAFA. Please contact Tom Terney – [email protected] – if you can help (it’s very easy!!). http://gayrights.change.org/petitions/view/urge_rep_barrow_boren_boyd_bright_ellsworth_to_support_an_inclusive_immigration_reform Congressman John Barrow (D-GA-12) Congressman Dan Boren (D-OK-2) Congressman Allen Boyd (D-FL-2) Congressman Bobby Bright (D-AL-2) Congressman Brad Ellsworth (D-IN-8)
Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization and our letter writing campaign is now in its 64th week. Recently, we saw Congressman John Sarbanes co-sponsor UAFA and a few weeks ago, the Democrats in the Senate leadership unveiled a framework for comprehensive immigration reform, and UAFA’s language was included. We must continue to keep this issue out front and make sure UAFA’s language is included in any bill that moves forward. Our efforts have gained us a LOT of co-sponsors in both the House (23) and Senate (5), and This week, we are focusing on five more members of the House – Let’s finally hit our goal of 500 signatures! Click the link below to send an e-mail to all of these members of Congress, and please also forward this on to as many family and friends, and share on Facebook, Twitter, etc… We need as many people to sign this each week as possible, and the change.org link makes doing this quick and easy! We are also working on getting UAFA-supportive resolutions passed by city councils all around the country, and getting State, County and City elected officials to send letters to members of Congress urging them to support UAFA. Please contact Tom at [email protected] – if you can help (it’s very easy!!). http://www.change.org/petitions/view/ask_rep_boccieri_braley_kaptur_markey_nye_to_support_inclusive_comprehensive_immigration_reform http://tinyurl.com/UAFA-Week64 If you have not participated in our campaign before, please do so. Once you are done with that, you can also take part in previous week’s campaign here: http://www.change.org/my_change/search?content_type=Actions&global_keyword=lgbt+immigration+Rights Thank you! The five representative that we are writing to this week are: Congressman John Boccieri (D-OH-16) Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA-1) Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-9) Congresswoman Betsy Markey (D-CO-4) Congressman Glenn Nye (D-VA-2) http://www.change.org/my_change/search?content_type=Actions&global_keyword=lgbt+immigration+Rights
Out4Immigration is an all grassroots organization and our letter writing campaign is now in its 63rd week. Recently, we saw Congressman John Sarbanes co-sponsor UAFA and a few weeks ago, the Democrats in the Senate leadership unveiled a framework for comprehensive immigration reform, and UAFA’s language was included. We must continue to keep this issue out front and make sure UAFA’s language is included in any bill that moves forward. Our efforts have gained us a LOT of co-sponsors in both the House (23) and Senate (5), and it’s important to remember the impact that continued, consistent grass roots efforts have. WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! This week, we are focusing on five more members of the House –
– Let’s finally hit our goal of 500 signatures! Click this link to send an e-mail to all of these members of Congress, and please also forward this on to as many family and friends, and share on Facebook, Twitter, etc… We need as many people to sign this each week as possible, and the change.org link makes doing this quick and easy! If you have not participated in our previous week’s letter writing campaign, you can still sign those letters, just click through to the link, here. We are also working on getting UAFA-supportive resolutions passed by city councils all around the country, and getting State, County and City elected officials to send letters to members of Congress urging them to support UAFA. Please contact Tom Tierney – [email protected] – if you can help (it’s very easy!!).
cross posted at out4immigration’s blog Watch this powerful short video of Britta and Carla, a married same-sex binational couple living in New York City fighting to stay together in the United States. The video was put together by New York Civil Liberties Union in collaboration with Rep Jerrold Nadler and the NYC LGBT Center. Watch it, share it, tweet it… and let's make sure that congress knows about this injustice and addresses it by passing an INCLUSIVE Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, ie. one that includes LGBT Families! Many thanks also go to Melanie Nathan who represented them (as well as Ms Shirley Tan) and worked tirelessly to get Britta out of detention and deportation. You can read more about their story on Melanie's blog.
Hi Folks, I just wanted to share with you this breaking news! Yesterday evening, the senate just introduced a 26 pages framework of what a Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will look like and LGBT Families has been included in the framework (it is at page 22 of the 26 page document). For more information, you can read them here: While this is not the end… and we assume that there will be a lot of debate, but we know at least that as of now, our families, LGBT Families, will be included. A lot of you have been working with us in supporting this issue either through meeting with representatives or allowing us to speak at your rallies or write to your members… it has been a long, stressful and difficult journey but at least we know that we are moving in the right direction and we are seeing some results and movement. I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you for supporting this very important issue even when it is not so popular and for signing our weekly petitions at change.org We would never have been where we are without your support and assistance. I know that in the next month, when the bill gets introduced and moves through the floor, we are going to need more of your help and assistance as we fight to make sure that LGBT Families are not going to be removed from the bill. However, right now, I just want to say “THANK YOU”. Yours sincerely, http://www.change.org/actions/search?search=lgbt+immigration+rights
One year ago, Gina Caprio, an American citizen living in Sacramento, CA was determined to do something to change the way unjust US immigration law was affecting her life. Caprio had fallen in love with someone in the UK a few years earlier. The relationship had taken the usual twists and turns associated with a long-distance romance, but when Caprio and her partner decided they wanted to live together in the US, a door slammed shut. Caprio’s UK partner is a woman – and together they are a same-sex binational couple – one of more than 36,000 according to a Human Rights Watch Report. Because the US does not recognize same-sex relationships in any form at the federal level, the US half of the couple cannot sponsor their foreign partner for legal residency here. While opposite-sex binational couples have long taken advantage of marriage as a means to stay together in the US – same-sex couples, whether married or not, remain harshly discriminated against. “When I heard the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) had just been re-introduced in Congress, I knew I had to do something that would make sure this legislation would pass,” said Caprio. She joined Out4Immigration, an all-volunteer group made up of same-sex binational couples, their families and other supportive individuals and learned from them that UAFA needed more co-sponsors in both the House and the Senate. While this, the fifth re-introduction of the bill by Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY-8] and Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT] came with 80 co-sponsors in the House and 14 in the Senate, it was nowhere near the number needed to gain a judiciary hearing, much less a floor vote. “We drafted a form letter that allowed space for people to tell how hard it was to be in a same-sex binational relationship in America and started contacting previous co-sponsors of the bill by email, fax and snail mail,” Caprio said. Out4Immigration has about 400 active members around the world. Using the Change.org website, Facebook and Twitter, these members spread the word about the campaign and each week’s targets. “We saw results of the weekly letter writing campaign almost immediately,” said Mickey Lim, Vice President of Out4Immigration. “Rep. Ed Pastor [D-AZ-4] and Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand [D-NY] were quick to read our stories and sign on. But the real indication that we were making an impact – that our voices were being heard – was when Congressional staffers called us and said ‘You’re jamming our fax lines and crashing our email systems!’ You have to send a lot of messages to do that.” The combination of the letter writing campaign, strategic efforts by other LGBT groups and advocates, and the 11th-hour private bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] that stopped the deportation of a Filipino woman named Shirley Tan, who was nearly forcibly separated from her same-sex American partner and their two children led to a Senate Judiciary hearing on UAFA last June. While the bill has since picked up more Senate co-sponsors, Feinstein, ironically, has not signed on. Tom Tierney, another Out4Immigration volunteer joined the letter writing campaign and added a weekly “Call Congress” action after the June hearing. A revised letter now asks five members of Congress each week to co-sponsor UAFA as well as support same-sex binational couples in comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). A bill introduced by Rep. Mike Honda [D-CA- 15] last September called the Reuniting Families Act (RFA), is inclusive. A Senate version of that bill, however, is not. When a bill by Rep. Luis Gutierrez [D-IL-4] called “CIR ASAP” omitted same-sex binational couples late last year, “our members and their families jammed his phone lines,” Lim says. And, when rumors circulated that Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY] might be considering leaving same-sex binationals out of his Senate counterpart bill, “our members were quick to act and call his office, too.” “The people we target each week are selected based upon their past voting records on LGBT and immigration issues, as well as the committees on which they sit in their respective chambers of Congress,” explains Tierney, who continues to try to net some Republican support to go with the so-far all-Democrat numbers. Last week, UAFA picked up a key co-sponsor, Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA-35], bringing the total number of House supporters to 120 – more co-sponsors than any other immigration bill. “In total, we’ve seen 5 Senators and over 20 members of the House sign on as UAFA co-sponsors after we’ve written to them. They’re getting the message,” says Tierney. Meanwhile, Gina Caprio and her partner have temporarily overcome their separation through a student visa. “But the emphasis here is on the word ‘temporary,’” says Caprio. Until same-sex binational couples are recognized at the federal level, either through passage of UAFA or its inclusion in larger CIR, the Out4Immigration letter writing campaign will continue. “No one should have to choose between their country and their family,” says Lim. “Our letters and phone calls address the very real issue that LGBT Americans with foreign partners have very few legal options to live together in this country.”
This was reported on Minnesota Independent – Ellison urges support for binational same-sex couples (http://minnesotaindependent.com/54939/ellison-urges-support-for-binational-same-sex-couples). The LGBT Caucus in the house sent a letter to Dear President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schumer, and Chairwoman Lofgren to “express our stong support for a comprehensive immigration reform bill which would end discrimination against We urge Congress to include the Uniting American Families Act (H.R. 1024lS. 424) in any comprehensive immigration reform legislation.” We are glad that the LGBT Caucus has taken a stand for equal immigration rights for LGBT Binational Couples and hope that the stakeholders that will be introducing the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will ensure that ALL Families (including LGBT Families) are included in their reform bill. We also urged you to join our petition to Sen Schumer and Rep Lofgren to make sure that we are included in their reform bill. The link to the petition is http://www.change.org/actions/view/urge_sen_schumer_and_rep_lofgren_to_include_lgbt_families_in_their_comprehensive_immigration_bill http://minnesotaindependent.com/54939/ellison-urges-support-for-binational-same-sex-couples
Hi Folks, Out4Immigration has been organizing a weekly letter writing campaign to get more support for Equal Immigration Rights for LGBT Couples. Each week, we urged actions on 5 representative in congress (senate and house) to get them to consider sponsoring the Uniting American Families Act as well as an INCLUSIVE Comprehensive Immigration Reform (ie, one that includes LGBT Families) You can find all of the recent actions on change.org: http://www.change.org/ideas/actions/equal_immigration_rights_for_same_sex_binational_couples Some actions of particular importance that I want to emphasize on: Rep Gutierrez’s introduced a CIR bill in December that excluded LGBT Families and we would like to urge you to express your disappointment to his office as well as demand that we be included in the final bill. The action can be found here: http://www.change.org/ideas/2008/view_action/please_tell_rep_gutierrez_that_lgbt_families_must_be_included_in_cir_asap Sen Schumer as well as Rep Lofgren will be introducing their version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill by the end of January. We need to also keep the pressure up to make sure that both the house and senate version of CIR is an inclusive bill that includes LGBT Families. We believe NOBODY should be left out of immigration reform! The specific action to Sen Schumer as well as Rep Lofgren can be found here: http://www.change.org/ideas/2008/view_action/urge_sen_schumer_and_rep_lofgren_to_include_lgbt_families_in_their_comprehensive_immigration_bill Please join our action by clicking through every week, to ensure that we have an INCLUSIVE Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Thank you, Amos Lim http://www.change.org/ideas/actions/equal_immigration_rights_for_same_sex_binational_couples
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