I am a US Citizen, a Vietnam Veteran, a home owner, a tax payer and a member in good standing in my community, yet I am not afforded the same rights as my neighbors because I am a man in love with another man.

In 2003 I met a young man from Australia. He was here on a Visitor's Visa and had run into some bad luck. He had been robbed, lied to, and had been so beat down by the system that he couldn't look anyone in the eye. He needed a place to stay and I took him in to help him get back on his feet. That was back in 2003 and we have been together ever since.

The only way I kept him in this country legally was to enroll him in school and the only way he can stay here is if he remains in school. When I met my Aussie I was dept free. Now I'm in dept to the turn of over 40 thousand, due to lawyer fees, tuition, application fees and supporting him. Because of his visa status he is not allowed to work, but he has no money to pay his tuition...a tuition that is elevated because he is an international student...a tuition I pay to a school that my taxes help support. Due to current immigration laws, I can not sponsor him for a resident alien card (green card), or adopt him because he is over 18. I can't marry him and as far as the US Government is concerned, we are total strangers, even though we have spent every night together.

I am an Electronics Field; Service Technician by trade. I am finding it harder and harder to justify staying in this country under the current conditions. If we move to Australia my partner could sponsor me. If we move to Canada we could marry. If we stay in the US I see no future for us. There are an estimated eighty thousand couples in our situation and every day more and more people in our situation are leaving the US. The US is losing talented people due to inequality of immigration law. We are being forced to choose between our country and the person we love. Since April 2006, around the world, there are twenty countries that allow same sex immigration or grant some sort of benefits to binational couples. But the "greatest country in the world" is behind in granting the same equality to gay Americans.

This is also a civil rights issue. If heterosexual "Joe Blow" down the street can walk across the border, marry a woman he has known for five minutes, bring her home and sponsor her for a Green card, why shouldn't I be allowed to sponsor someone I have spent years building a life with, someone that I am in love with, someone who brings me joy and peace, and someone who has made me a better person.

We are not asking for special rights we are asking for equal rights. We are asking for justice. I urge you to support the Uniting American Families Act and when voting on gay related issues such as same sex marriage, look in your heart and ask yourself whether your vote discriminates against, causes harm to or treats fellow Americans as second class citizens. (photo: personal; Randy and GJ together since: 2003)

Tags: USA