You are here: Home » Featured » Pro-Immigration Groups Threaten To Derail Immigration Reform over Pro-LGBTI Language

Pro-Immigration Groups Threaten To Derail Immigration Reform over Pro-LGBTI Language

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has pulled their support from the Uniting American Families Act over language that would allow someone to sponsor their partner into the United States. According to Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, this attempt to slip LGBTI rights into this bill was a slap in the face of all those who worked so hard to get it passed. The usual excuse of how this would undermine “traditional” marriage has been trotted out, this time in a letter to California Representative Mike Honda. According to the letter sent to him by the bishops, allowing a person to sponsor their same sex partner “would erode the institution of marriage and family by according marriagelike immigration benefits to same-sex relationships, a position that is contrary to the very nature of marriage, which pre-dates the church and the state.” It would, of course, be nice to remind these people of the history of the institution of marriage, and that many other cultures practiced marriage, and a few of them actually did engage in marriage between two individuals of the same sex. Their definition is, of course, limited to specifically the Christian view of marriage, and, of course, incorrect since it was not defined fully as being between a man and a woman until around AD 500.

Mike Honda made it clear that LGBTI rights too often get tossed aside during the legislative process. Perhaps Mr. Honda, who has been a long time LGBTI rights advoate, has a better grasp than some of the changes that have occurred since the passage of Prop 8 and the increasingly vocal nature of the LGBTI rights community.

There are cases where the non-citizen involved in this relationship faces violence, rape or death in their home land, but they cannot apply for asylum under American law because they do not come from a country which is deemed repressive enough to allow for that special status. While many Cubans fled the repression of Fidel Castro in Cuba, a citizen of Chile under Augusto Pinochet would have been forced to remain here illegally or be deported home. After all, Cuba was aligned with the Soviet Union, and Chile with the United States.

Despite the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ decision, and the vocal decrying of this move by Reverend Rodriguez, this language is not likely to be pulled easily. One of the supporters of this bill is Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. Elected to office in 1974, Senator Leahy comes from a state where gays and lesbians make up the largest minority, and he knows that many LGBTI Vermonters will be paying attention. During the hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy showed a great deal of compassion for Shirley Tan’s young son’s emotional distress. According to Melanie Nathan of Oblogdeeoblogda, Senator Leahy met privately with Ms Tan and her family after the hearing.

It is unclear if the pro-LGBTI wording will cause a mass defection of support for this bill, but it seems to have a few powerful supporters in Congress right now. In many ways, this bill will only fail if these groups choose to remove themselves from the process over the rights of others no matter how much they may think that their behaviors and their lives are abhorrent. There was a time when Hispanics were treated as abhorrent, filthy, lazy, amoral and stupid. One only needs to look back at Slow-Poke Rodriguez, cousin of Speedy Gonzales, to see some of those stereotypes in action. Many Latinos suffer inequities and deprived conditions in the United States currently. Back in the 1980′s I lived in Florida and I remember the laws which made it impossible for Latino children to get educations because the laws prevented them from entering school mid-year. Perhaps these groups should remember what it is to be repressed before they start throwing their hands in the air and running away.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23262.html

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=92059

http://oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/unique-video-from-hearings-keep-eye-open-for-more/