Silf and Bev Jo

22/06/08 10:14
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I do not know when I will see my beloved again because our love and commitment of over six years is not recognized or respected by the laws either of our countries. As we all are painfully aware, it doesn't have to be like that. Usually governments allow and even encourage binational couples by making immigration relatively simple for them. As a Lesbian couple, we are denied a basic human right: to live our lives together. This turn of events was devastating to us and affected the lives of our close friends and our community. With all our hearts we want to be together to build our lives together. Each day apart was excruciating and is made even more painful knowing that many couples like us suffer because of this cruel and discriminatory policy. Any heterosexual couple, regardless of the duration of their relationship or the depth of their love for each other is able to marry and remain together. Read more Immigration Issues Are Complex When One Partner is Disabled. (photo: LGIRTF, Immigration Equality archive)

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Americans take it for granted that if they fall in love with a foreigner, they will be able to sponsor their partner for residency in the United States. But there is no such option for same-sex couples. It simply does not matter how long a couple has been together, how devoted they are to each other or even if they are legally married in Massachusetts, California (before Prop 8) or a country that allows it; if the partners are the same sex, their relationship is irrelevant in the American immigration system. A matter of fact, if our marriages become known to an immigration official, it would be evidence enough (to them) of a reason to want to stay permanently in the U.S. and would be an automatic ground to deny our spouses entry, or even a visa in the future.



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