DOMA and Immigration

An LGBT group on stage at the Castro giving a speech on tolerance

I could not help but watch one of the Sisters of Perpetual indulgence walk by in a studded leather jock strap and full drag queen makeup.  “What does the DOMA decision mean for you and your community” I asked a lesbian couple, the Raykirks, holding a sign indicating that they had been together for “19 Fabulous Years.”  They then explained how it increased their legal rights, and would have helped when one of them got seriously ill a few years back.  Alice Raykirk continued, “We have several friends that have been here forever and pay their taxes but they’re from other countries and can’t stay here with their partners and now they can… I’m not 100% sure [of what this means for immigration law], but I can tell you for our friends it means that they get to stay with their loved ones and their friends.”

The LGBT community and allies came to the Castro, celebrating the end of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) hard near the memorial for Harvey Milk.  It was the sort of over-the-top crowd that San Francisco had become known for, and this celebration was a semi-impromptu Pride festival, only one week away from actual Pride so many of the people there already had costumes ready.

Even in the midst of the celebration, however, this crowd remembered how close the LGBT community is to the immigrant community.  This is not surprising, however: 36,000 American citizens were being denied the opportunity to apply for green cards for their spouses.  This has lead to the formation of groups like Immigration Equality and Out4Immigration to fight for the rights of undocumented members of the LGBT community, or “undocuqueers.”

These groups have been very successful at helping to merge the cultures of the immigrant rights movement and LGBT rights movement.  Again, this is not particularly surprising: a lot of the lead organizers in large immigrant organizations like United We Dream or my own organization, DRM Action Coalition, have LGBT members within the leadership.  These leaders are often involved in organizing in both communities, and can often empathize with each other on “coming out” as undocumented and LGBT.

Even with these strong connections between these communities, however, there was a serious point of contention that tested these coalitions: Sen. Leahy’s proposed amendment to the Gang of 8 bill to recognize gay marriage for purposes of immigration, i.e. applying for a spouse’s green card.  Leaders on immigration within the GOP like Marco Rubio (R-FL) threatened to walk out on the bill if it included marriage rights for LGBT couples.  Without him and Republicans like him, the bill was doomed, most likely even in the Senate.

It looked like the Democrats may have abandoned the LGBT movement.  This was pretty rough, especially since DOMA, the very law that was blocking their rights, was a cynical compromise between Clinton and anti-LGBT groups to get other parts of his agenda completed.  Although there were a few LGBT organizations that threatened to leave, this infighting within the coalition was short-lived as the Supreme Court solved the problem for them.

With DOMA out of the picture, the LGBT dimension of the immigration debate has been completely taken out of the argument.  For many Republicans this is bad news: they are split over the immigration issue (typically by how many Latinos they have in their constituency).  Previously, the anti-immigration caucus within the GOP was pegging it’s argument to border security and LGBT issues while Leahy was threatening to put that in.  With the LGBT amendment gone and comically large spending on the border, those in the GOP will look increasingly unreasonable in a Congress that is unpopular for being unreasonable.