white with foam

Behind every bill that languishes in committee, there’s an untold number of stories: stories of people compelled to live crazy, parallel lives, people who, on top of their standard allotments of pain, have to cope with an extra systemic dysfunction, the only resistance to which is passive. To wit: my buddy and site host Dave, who today, three days before Christmas, is leavin’ on a jet plane with no fixed return date because of a mushmouthed immigration policy.

“if the average voter was aware of our plight — conservative, moderate, or liberal — a large majority would say, “Well, they should be able to sponsor their partner, sure.” I think this because of my experience with my brother and sister in law, who are life-long conservative Christian Republicans. So many close friends — progressives — didn’t even realize that I couldn’t just “go to Massachusetts, get married, and then apply.” It’s like there’s this nationwide blanket of denial about the conscience-shocking unfair discrimination that a great many (50,000? 100,000?) U.S. citizens and their partners face because the U.S. Government still openly discriminates against its own citizens on the basis of sexual orientation. So I think the task is to get even moderates and conservatives to agree that the status quo is wrong and to tell their own U.S. Reps just that.”

Further down the legislative pipeline is the Military Families Act, which directs the Department of Fatherland Security to allow military spouses to apply for green cards. The definition of the term ‘spouse’ isn’t made in this bill, but one suspects that even if he were in the army, Dave wouldn’t be able to sponsor his partner.

It’s possible that both these Acts will be folded into a larger immigration reform package which Obama will press for in 2010. To me, that’s the sound of a window opening, but I know how quickly these things can turn south: vide health care reform.

UPDATE: Just to emphasize, this is not a new front in the fight for gay marriage. Even if these guys did go to Iowa and got hitched, he still couldn’t sponsor his partner for citizenship. But if I somehow wound up marrying a Russian girl I found online — no problemo, in the eyes of the state. Karyn might not go for it, though.

Tags:   immigration · UAFA · Uniting American Families ActNo Comments