Family Equality Council Testifies in Support of the Uniting American Families Act
The Uniting American Families Act will receive its first
Congressional hearing tomorrow morning, Wednesday, June 3rd.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the lead sponsor of the bill, which
will end current discriminatory immigration policy by allowing
American citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency
in the United States. Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of
Family
Equality Council, submitted testimony on behalf of LGBT
families (copied below with our statement to the press).
Special thanks to our partners at Immigration Equality, the lead organizational advocate of the bill, for their hard work on behalf of binational LGBT families!
MEDIA STATEMENT
Monday, June 2, 2009
Contact:
Dustin Kight, Communications Manager, Family Equality Council, 617.502.8700 x 228, dustin.kight@familyequality.org
Family Equality Council Testifies in Support of the Uniting American Families Act
Legislation will allow American citizens to sponsor their partners, keep families together
Statement from Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler; testimony copied below
Media Interviews Available
Boston, MA — The Senate Judiciary Committee will take testimony regarding the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:00am in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The UAFA will end current discriminatory immigration policy by allowing American citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency in the United States. More than 36,000 same-sex binational couples are affected by current law. An estimated 47% of these couples are raising children. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the lead Senate sponsor of the UAFA and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of Family Equality Council, has submitted testimony to the committee (copied below).
Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council:
“As a parent, I cannot imagine having my family split apart because our government refused to recognize my wife and children's relationships to each other, yet for thousands of same-sex couples that is the daily reality they face. Their families are made up of citizens and non-citizens, but they are families nonetheless. And that is why U.S. family unification principles should apply to them. This week, some 16,000 binational same-sex couples raising children in this country are looking to Congress to see whether they really support all families. The Family Equality Council supports comprehensive immigration reform. To be truly comprehensive, immigration reform must include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families. I'm optimistic that with this Congress and Senator Leahy at the helm of this reform, committed same-sex couples will be treated equally under U.S. immigration law. I look forward to contributing to this effort, and we will push hard to educate Congress why this is the right thing to do for all families."
EDITORS: To book an interview with Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, please call or email the media contacts listed above.
About the Family Equality Council
The Family Equality Council works to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families. For more information, visit www.familyequality.org.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Jennifer Chrisler's Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee
END DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER FAMILIES IN IMMIGRATION LAW
Testimony Submitted to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Hearing: “The Uniting American Families Act: Addressing Inequality in Federal Immigration Law”
June 3, 2009
Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council
On behalf of the thousands of families that support Family Equality Council, the national organization working to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families, I would like to thank Senator Leahy for holding this important hearing on the Uniting American Families Act (H.R. 1025/S. 424) and same-sex binational families, and for advocating for inclusion of LGBT families in comprehensive immigration reform this year.
The mission of Family Equality Council is to create and protect happy, healthy families. Central to that is the basic ability of parents and their children to live together without fear of forced separation or having to choose between the family they’ve built and the country they love.
Guiding U.S. immigration policy is this same principle – “family unification.” U.S. citizens and permanent residents are allowed to sponsor a spouse for immigration purposes so they may live together in the U.S. However, this option for unification is currently denied to same-sex partners, regardless of how long the couple has been together.
Family Equality Council witnesses the devastating consequences this has for same-sex partners raising children. Families are torn apart, relegated to living underground, or forced out of the U.S. altogether. Children live in fear that one of their parents will be forced to leave the country.
Consider the case of Barbara and Susan. They have been together for over six years and are raising two children in Massachusetts, where Family Equality Council is based. Susan is from the United Kingdom and in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa. Although Massachusetts has ended discrimination in marriage against same-sex couples, Susan and Barbara cannot marry and offer their children the protections afforded by having married parents. They fear that declaring their intent to live together permanently would jeopardize Susan’s visa status and the ability of their family to stay together in the U.S.
Walter and Santo have been partners for over 15 years. In 1999, the couple moved to Michigan where Walter joined the Ford Motor Company and Santo enrolled as a student at Wayne State University. After four years, they could no longer keep Santo on a valid student visa. The couple moved again, this time to New York, where Santo had received a job offer from a company that would sponsor him for a work visa. While in New York, they adopted Ethan, fulfilling their dream of starting a family. After only one year in New York, however, Santo’s job became untenable and they were forced again to consider how they could remain on valid visa status. Ultimately, they decided they could not put Ethan through move after move after move. They left the U.S. to live permanently in Sydney, Australia. Walter, Santo and Ethan are together, but they are separated from their extended family members who remain in the U.S., including Ethan’s grandmother, aunt and uncle.
These are just two of thousands of similar stories that tell of the unfair and unhealthy strain current U.S. immigration law places on same-sex families. Accordingly to the 2000 U.S. Census, nearly 47% of same-sex binational couples – 16,000 couples – reported raising children in their home.
As a parent, I appreciate what a struggle it would be to navigate such legal and social vulnerabilities and still raise my twin boys to be the happy, healthy, thriving pre-adolescents they currently are. Family Equality Council serves parents all over the U.S. who do face this very struggle. On their behalf, I appeal to Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act and to ensure that immigration reform is truly comprehensive by including LGBT families. Let not one more day go by in the U.S. without protecting families like Susan’s and Barbara’s, preventing families like Walter’s, Santo’s and Ethan’s from leaving the U.S., and keeping thousands of parents and their children from living in daily fear of losing the most central, yet basic piece of family life – being together.
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Special thanks to our partners at Immigration Equality, the lead organizational advocate of the bill, for their hard work on behalf of binational LGBT families!
MEDIA STATEMENT
Monday, June 2, 2009
Contact:
Dustin Kight, Communications Manager, Family Equality Council, 617.502.8700 x 228, dustin.kight@familyequality.org
Family Equality Council Testifies in Support of the Uniting American Families Act
Legislation will allow American citizens to sponsor their partners, keep families together
Statement from Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler; testimony copied below
Media Interviews Available
Boston, MA — The Senate Judiciary Committee will take testimony regarding the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) on Wednesday, June 3 at 10:00am in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The UAFA will end current discriminatory immigration policy by allowing American citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency in the United States. More than 36,000 same-sex binational couples are affected by current law. An estimated 47% of these couples are raising children. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the lead Senate sponsor of the UAFA and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of Family Equality Council, has submitted testimony to the committee (copied below).
Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council:
“As a parent, I cannot imagine having my family split apart because our government refused to recognize my wife and children's relationships to each other, yet for thousands of same-sex couples that is the daily reality they face. Their families are made up of citizens and non-citizens, but they are families nonetheless. And that is why U.S. family unification principles should apply to them. This week, some 16,000 binational same-sex couples raising children in this country are looking to Congress to see whether they really support all families. The Family Equality Council supports comprehensive immigration reform. To be truly comprehensive, immigration reform must include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families. I'm optimistic that with this Congress and Senator Leahy at the helm of this reform, committed same-sex couples will be treated equally under U.S. immigration law. I look forward to contributing to this effort, and we will push hard to educate Congress why this is the right thing to do for all families."
EDITORS: To book an interview with Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, please call or email the media contacts listed above.
About the Family Equality Council
The Family Equality Council works to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families. For more information, visit www.familyequality.org.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Jennifer Chrisler's Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee
END DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER FAMILIES IN IMMIGRATION LAW
Testimony Submitted to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Hearing: “The Uniting American Families Act: Addressing Inequality in Federal Immigration Law”
June 3, 2009
Statement of Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council
On behalf of the thousands of families that support Family Equality Council, the national organization working to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families, I would like to thank Senator Leahy for holding this important hearing on the Uniting American Families Act (H.R. 1025/S. 424) and same-sex binational families, and for advocating for inclusion of LGBT families in comprehensive immigration reform this year.
The mission of Family Equality Council is to create and protect happy, healthy families. Central to that is the basic ability of parents and their children to live together without fear of forced separation or having to choose between the family they’ve built and the country they love.
Guiding U.S. immigration policy is this same principle – “family unification.” U.S. citizens and permanent residents are allowed to sponsor a spouse for immigration purposes so they may live together in the U.S. However, this option for unification is currently denied to same-sex partners, regardless of how long the couple has been together.
Family Equality Council witnesses the devastating consequences this has for same-sex partners raising children. Families are torn apart, relegated to living underground, or forced out of the U.S. altogether. Children live in fear that one of their parents will be forced to leave the country.
Consider the case of Barbara and Susan. They have been together for over six years and are raising two children in Massachusetts, where Family Equality Council is based. Susan is from the United Kingdom and in the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa. Although Massachusetts has ended discrimination in marriage against same-sex couples, Susan and Barbara cannot marry and offer their children the protections afforded by having married parents. They fear that declaring their intent to live together permanently would jeopardize Susan’s visa status and the ability of their family to stay together in the U.S.
Walter and Santo have been partners for over 15 years. In 1999, the couple moved to Michigan where Walter joined the Ford Motor Company and Santo enrolled as a student at Wayne State University. After four years, they could no longer keep Santo on a valid student visa. The couple moved again, this time to New York, where Santo had received a job offer from a company that would sponsor him for a work visa. While in New York, they adopted Ethan, fulfilling their dream of starting a family. After only one year in New York, however, Santo’s job became untenable and they were forced again to consider how they could remain on valid visa status. Ultimately, they decided they could not put Ethan through move after move after move. They left the U.S. to live permanently in Sydney, Australia. Walter, Santo and Ethan are together, but they are separated from their extended family members who remain in the U.S., including Ethan’s grandmother, aunt and uncle.
These are just two of thousands of similar stories that tell of the unfair and unhealthy strain current U.S. immigration law places on same-sex families. Accordingly to the 2000 U.S. Census, nearly 47% of same-sex binational couples – 16,000 couples – reported raising children in their home.
As a parent, I appreciate what a struggle it would be to navigate such legal and social vulnerabilities and still raise my twin boys to be the happy, healthy, thriving pre-adolescents they currently are. Family Equality Council serves parents all over the U.S. who do face this very struggle. On their behalf, I appeal to Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act and to ensure that immigration reform is truly comprehensive by including LGBT families. Let not one more day go by in the U.S. without protecting families like Susan’s and Barbara’s, preventing families like Walter’s, Santo’s and Ethan’s from leaving the U.S., and keeping thousands of parents and their children from living in daily fear of losing the most central, yet basic piece of family life – being together.
# # #