Where Immigration and LGBT Meet

Juan and Felippe, representing Get Equal, an undocuqueer organization, at the March on the RNC in 2012

“We’ve been together almost ten years now” said John from a truck parked in Civic Center, San Francisco.  The truck was flanked by large speakers and adorned with a banner reading “IMMIGRANTS RISE!”  Around the truck were supporters, cheering and waving signs.  In other cities across the US on May Day, the immigrant community was outside, demonstrating and being supported by the LGBT community.  This crowd well represented the coalitions that have been built by gay and immigrant groups across the country that have cemented over the last few years.  For many of those organizers who came out on May Day who were undocuqueer, Senator Leahy’s (D-VT) withdrawn amendment would have intimately touched on their lives.

While May Day has come and gone, the crowds who came out held signs with Get Equal and Out4Immigration, two groups explicitly representing gay and undocumented interests, printed on them.  Back at the May Day rally, John continued, “I applied for a green card for my husband, based on our marriage.  The Federal Government sent me a letter back saying ‘You and your spouse are of the same sex, therefore your petition is denied.’”  The crowd booed.

“You know what?  Boo even louder, let them hear it in the court building on Montgomery because we’re in deportation proceedings.  My husband was taken into custody by ICE… they flew him …[from San Francisco] to Arizona.  It took us three weeks to get him out.  Because he is gay, they put him in solitary confinement…”  He went on to talk about how difficult his life and marriage have been because of immigration law, and how it affects both his husband and himself on some basic levels to a very sympathetic crowd.

While this is San Francisco, that bastion of gay, immigrant lefty politics, the young people in the Civic Center May Day crowd are a microcosm of the youth vote in the country in general: youth voters are increasingly in favor of immigration, and nobody who grew up after Will&Grace even understands why people are still fighting the “homosexual agenda” in a way that seemed so important to so many in the ‘90s: it is a dying issue on the Right (young people won’t magically start hating their gay friends at 40), and a civil rights issue on the Left. No legislator would want to be the last guy who gets that memo, and the homophobic crowd narrows down every year as legislators continue to “evolve” on the issue.

The evolution of Congress has not taken effect quickly enough to get Senator Leahy’s amendment to extend marriage protections to members of the LGBT community with foreign-born spouses in the Gang of 8’s immigration bill, however.  Under the advice of members like Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who said “[adopting the amendment] would mean that the bill would fall apart because the coalition would fall apart because no matter how well meaning you are, Sen. Leahy — and I know you are — there are a lot of folks supporting this bill who are not going to agree to redefine marriage for immigration law purposes,” Leahy opted not to put his amendment forward.

Jeff Flake (R-AZ) shared similar sentiments about not voting for a bill with an LGBT measure in it.  The real nail in the coffin, however, was the sole rising Latino star in the Republican Party, Marco Rubio (R-FL), saying he would not vote for a bill with Leahy’s amendment.  Without Marco Rubio, the bill cannot pass, and Rubio will likely need Flake and Graham to keep the strong front of the Gang of 8 intact, as well as McCain and others who came out against the amendment both on the Senate floor and throughout the craziness that is the House.

While the political environment is mostly friendly to both gays and immigrants now, the withdrawal of Leahy’s amendment shows there is still much more advocacy work on behalf of both of these communities to be done.  With the DOMA decision coming down in June, the Supreme Court may strike down the very provision preventing John from applying for immigration status for his husband.  What it will be either way, however, is one last, bitterly remembered slap in the face to gays from a dying anti-gay movement that has already been significantly pushed backward on most issues.