It was early morning on March 13, 2000, when Leslie Bulbuk was awakened by a phone call from her partner, Marta Donayre.
"Marta told me her company was about to be acquired by a company in Texas and that she might be laid off due to job duplications," Bulbuk says. "She said I should find myself a nice American girl, someone who wouldn't have to leave the country if she lost her job."

Although Donayre had a H-1B visa—which allows professional workers from other countries to work in the United States for up to six years, she would have to return to her native Brazil if she was laid off and couldn't find a new job within 10 days. Bulbuk, a U.S. citizen, doesn't have the same legal rights to sponsor Donayre to stay in the United States as heterosexual U.S. citizens do.

"That was when we first felt the sting of discrimination against same-sex binational couples," Bulbuk says. Read story, "Immigration won't recognize gay unions" by I-chun Che, The Sun, January 29, 2003)

(Photo: by Jacqueline Ramseyer, The Sun. Marta Donayre (left), a Brazilian immigrant in the United States on asylum, and Leslie Bulbuk are co-founders of Love Sees No Borders, a Sunnyvale group that publicizes the plight of same-sex binational couples and their fight to remain together in the United States.)

Tags: USA, Brazil