Good News for Queers Like Us

By us, I mean Mr. Shakes and me—that is, international couples, who can only be together through the immigration process.

Legislation was introduced in Congress Tuesday that would treat same-sex couples the same as opposite sex-couples for the purposes of immigration.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt) in the Senate, has a large number of bipartisan cosponsors in both chambers.

The Uniting American Families Act was previously named the Permanent Partners Immigration Act which died when the last session of Congress ended.

Nadler said he expected the new measure to fare better because it has broader support.

[…]

At least 16 countries recognize same-sex couples for the purposes of immigration including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This is excellent, just brilliant, news. I’m very excited!

His support for exactly this legislation was one of the reasons I supported Howard Dean. He was the only Democratic candidate during the last election who specifically outlined a plan for equal rights in immigration laws on his website.

That this bill has bipartisan support is great—I truly, truly hope it passes. I know the absolute despair of being separated by thousands of miles and a mountain of red tape from the person you love, and the only thing that kept us going was the thought that there was a light at the end of that very dark tunnel. In the age of the internet and cheap international travel, there are more and more couples in this situation, and I am thrilled beyond words that gay couples will be given the same opportunity we were.

Thank you, Representative Nadler! Thank you, Senator Leahy!

Huzzah!

(And a hat tip to Pam.)