What: Call your Congressman about the Uniting American Families Act

When: Starting Today, February 11th, 2009

Why: Ask them to co-sponsor the Uniting American Families Act

Who: This action is a national effort co-sponsored by Marriage Equality USA, Out4Immigration, API Equality, Love Exiles, Join the Impact and Immigration Equality

Currently, thousands of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Americans face the terrible choice of separating from the person they love or leaving their country because of discriminatory laws that don’t allow same-sex couples to sponsor their partners for immigration.

The Uniting American Families Act will be introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday, February 12, 2009, by Rep. Jerrold Nadler [NY-8].  If passed, this Act would immediately remedy 1 of the 1,138 federal rights denied same-sex couples.

A national coalition of LGBT-rights groups, including Immigration Equality, Marriage Equality USA, Out4Immigration, Join the Impact and Love Exiles, is asking everyone to take a moment to call your representative in Washington to ask that they join Rep. Nadler as a cosponsor of this bill.

Find out who your representative is at http://www.congressmerge.com/o… , then call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative.

Tell your representative’s staff:

I am calling to ask Representative ______________ to be an original cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act of 2009.  To cosponsor, he/she must contact Rep. Jerrold Nadler who is the lead sponsor.

The U.S. government discriminates against gay and lesbian binational couples by not allowing them to sponsor their foreign-born life partners for immigration.  Because of this, they face the terrible choice of separating from the person they love or leaving the country.  As Americans, they should not have to choose between family and country.  Please ask Rep. _______________ to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act of 2009 by reaching out to Rep. Nadler right away.

Marriage Equality USA: http://www.marriageequality.org

Out4Immigration: http://www.out4immigration.org

API Equality:  http://www.apiequality.org

Love Exiles: http://www.loveexiles.org

Immigration Equality: http://www.immigrationequality…

Join the Impact: http://www.jointheimpact.org

We will keep a growing list of co-sponsors to this bill at www.marriageequality.org on the Bi-National Outreach Director page.  Please join us and stay involved to secure this 1 right that comes automatically with federally recognized marriages on the road to full equality.

Chris Waddling, Bi-National Couples Outreach Director of Marriage Equality USA shares his story:

I moved to the U.S. from Canada in 1994 to attend graduate school in Hawaii.  Following school, I moved to Albany, New York and then to San Francisco, where I currently live.  During this time, I’ve lived in the U.S. on a variety of visa types, including F-1 Student, TN, and H1-B work visas.  

I met my husband, Tim, in 2001, and we were married in California in the summer of 2008.  Friends and family were surprised to learn that Tim could not sponsor me for permanent residency once we were married, as would be the case if we were an opposite-sex couple.  

My current visa expires in 2010, and until recently, we were living under the cloud of the knowledge that I would have to leave the country at that time, with or without Tim, into an uncertain future for both of us.  A few months ago, I learned that my employer of eight years was finally going to sponsor me, and so I am one of the lucky few.   Without this support, at the end of my visa I would have to leave the home, job, family and life that I have created in this country over the past fifteen years.  This is the reality for most of us who are on non-immigrant visas in this country.  We only wish to be treated equally to opposite-sex couples and have the ability to be sponsored by our husbands, wives, or life-partners.

For more personal stories, please go to:

http://www.out4immigration.org…

http://www.loveexiles.org/stor…