Here's the crummy Alistair and I face as does every lesbian or gay American if their partner is from another country. A heterosexual American citizen can meet someone from a foreign country at 2AM tonight at some sleazy nightclub in LA, drive five hours to Las Vegas and get married, and the very next day go to the INS and pretty much immediately get a "fiance" green card that will eventually allow them to remain together in the US. Unless the straight person's partner blew up a bridge in Bolivia or something, all heterosexual marriages are given immigration rights. On the other hand even though I am a US citizen and my Australian life-partner Alistair and I have been together for almost eight years, our relationship - our family - is given no respect or value in America and we are facing being thrown out of my country when his student visa runs out. This is what made me want to scream when Bush starts talking about being against "special rights" for gay people. This is so dishonest. I guess Bush believes if he's going to tell a lie, he might as well tell a whopper! All straight Americans have about 1500 special heterosexual rights through marriage that no gay American can have. Alistair and I are faced with the grim reality that unless America changes its unfair laws that deny gay bi-national couples the immigration rights currently only given to straight people, we will be forced to leave the United States in about a year and seek immigration asylum in a more civilized country than the US in order to maintain our relationship. The US is almost the only western country that doesn't give their citizens' gay relationships immigration rights. This sucks. Clearly this is a job for a performance artist to try to get people pissed off about this. As a gay American in a bi-national relationship for eight years, I take the... read more Tim Miller [1] Tim Miller and Alistair McCartney - Gay Immgration STOP DEPORTING OUR LOVERS! link: http://hometown.aol.com/millertale/timmillerimmig.html [2] Tim Miller Queer Performer - Blog link: http://timmillerperfomer.blogspot.com/ (photo: Tim Miller)

Tags: Tim Miller, gay immigration, equality