While volunteering at the GED program today, I got to talking to a student who would never fit the expected profile of a GED student. He's lived in Mexico, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, New York, and now Boston. He's seen Wicked, the musical, four times. He's climbed Mount Fuji and is going to Machu Pichu in May. While his conversational English is very good, his writing skills needed significant work and he's studying for the upcoming math portion of the GED. He's an all around hard worker, nice person, and clean cut individual.
And yet, he's worried about his visa. Right now he's on a tourist visa. He's been married for 10 years to the same person (an American) but can't get a green card or permanent residency because he's gay. Visa's are not issued for domestic partners, you have to be married. Gay marriage is not recognized by the department of immigration. So, my student is a house husband. He'd rather work, but it's taken him 10 years to try for a GED because there was no reason for it before now. He wasn't allowed to work in the states.
He's now getting a GED, but it's unlikely that he'll find a job that sponsors him to work in the U.S. He's waiting on the list for a green card, but that takes time, which is confounded by the fact that he's moved around so much (his husband's job moves him around a lot I guess).
Now, I'm not a huge gay rights activist. I believe in equality for all and have no problem with gay marriage, but I'm often more focused on other issues like the environment. Still, I think it's clear that something is wrong here. If you're in a committed relationship (10 years is a long time), but come from a different country, why should immigration be able to keep you from your spouse. Obviously his mate can afford to sponsor him. If he were with a woman he could easily marry and gain immediate residency status. Because of his sexual orientation he is unable to do so.
It's no wonder we have problems with illegal immigration. This person returns to Mexico regularly to keep in compliance with the law, but his partner has the money to make it work. Think of how easy it would be for him NOT to leave the country. We are so concerned about rules and guidelines to limit entry into the United States we may be hurting our own cause. Marriage isn't just about the spiritual connection, often it's a tangible contract the affords a couple a degree of rights not guaranteed in any other way.
Whether you agree with the lifestyle or practice of homosexuality or not, why should sexual orientation determine your ability to enter into a binding contract? (Yes marraige is, or should be, more than that, but nothing else gives a person the same rights as the marriage contract) Until domestic partnership is contractually equal to marriage, marriage should be granted to any couple that require the legal benefits of marriage.
2 comments:
I happen to agree with you. The anti-gay rights folks keep trying to make the issue one of religion ("the bible defines marriage as between a man and woman", etc). There's nothing religious about it, as far as the US government should be concerned. It is about legal rights--the immigration issue that you mention, inheritance, power of attorney, medical decisions, etc.
I've always thought the government should not be concerned with gay marriage. Now that I am concerned with visa issues with Gerd it really drove the issue home for me. If it came down to him losing his work visa, we could always get married, but not everyone has that chance. Despite all the work we've done to improve the way we deal with people not clearly covered in the constitution, we've got a bit more work to do.
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