Not Our Usual Holiday Message...

This is our holiday newsletter that we sent out earlier this month. In case you missed it, or need an easy way to share this message, we've re-posted it here. 

A number of actions have occurred this year to give us extra hope this holiday season...

Just last week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear two cases challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). It is Section 3 of DOMA, the clause that bans the US federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, that has blocked same-sex binationals from equal immigration rights - even as more states, cities and jurisdictions recognize our marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships. (Out4Immigration Prepares for SCOTUS Review of DOMA Cases)

Until this part of DOMA is struck down, the Obama Administration takes action to hold green card petitions filed by same-sex binationals "in abeyance" until DOMA's constitutionality can be decided, and/or Congress includes the language in the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in any Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills they will vote on - we must continue our fight and our push across all three branches of government.

The good news? We are so many steps closer to achieving recognition of our relationships and immigration rights at the federal level than we were this time last year.

The plan for 2013? We must continue to tell our stories to get the attention of the media and "the court of public opinion" that will ultimately sway all who have a hand in changing the course of history to make the right decisions for equality and justice for all.

Tell your story. Tammy and Sally did.

And so have dozens of other couples in the past month.

It's easy. Just complete this form.

We've been working with our friends at GetEQUAL to post at least two stories a week to our blogs and social networks.

When you see these stories in your newsfeeds, we ask that you please share them with your family, friends and colleagues.

As Amos Lim, our Community Outreach Director, said in our most recent press release.

"There is unbelievable power in these personal stories. So many people are unaware of the struggles same-sex binationals face. When they hear that DOMA and US immigration laws have forced people to choose between their spouse and their country, they stand up and say, ‘This is wrong. This is not American.’ And then, we hope, they will call or write Congress to demand change."

Tell your story. Charles and Mauricio did. 

Each of our stories are compelling and unique.

Take a few minutes now. Complete this form.

Help us present a picture to the American public, our judiciary, our legislators and our President that they cannot ignore. Join us in presenting our stories so that no one will ever force an American citizen to choose between their country and their spouse ever again.

To all of our members, our allies, our volunteers, we want to say thank you for the work you have done all year long to make the future look brighter than ever. We hope that by this time next year, everyone will be home for the holidays - those in exile, those living apart. Wherever you may be right now, we wish you a safe and healthy holiday season and we look forward to progress in equality in 2013. 

If you can, please make a donation to Out4Immigration through our  fiscal sponsor, Peace Development Fund.

Home for the Holidays

Out4Immigration is pleased to partner again with the amazing activists at GetEQUAL and Stop the Deportations to bring the world the story of Jesse & Max, a same-sex binational couple living in exile. Like thousands of other couples, Jesse & Max have been forced out of the United States because the federal government will not recognize them as a loving and committed couple. Jesse is an American citizen. Doesn't he deserve the same rights as an American man who marries a woman from another country? Or an American woman who marries a man from another country?

We're sure you think so, too! Visit GetEQUAL's webpage devoted to this story, where you can quickly download this video for sharing on your social networks.

You can also sign this petition to Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security. She has the power to issue humanitarian parole to the foreign partners of American citizens, so that these couples can come home for the holidays.

We hope in 2012 we see an end to the stories of exile, separation and uncertainty. The one way we know we have achieved all that did transpire in 2011 was because of the stories so many of us continue to tell. Over the holidays, be sure to share yours. There's a great new site devoted to helping you explain what a binational couple is and why we are denied the right to keep our families together in the United States. It's called GayItForward.

Victory for Monica and Cristina! Government Closes Deportation Case

BREAKING: Immigration & Customs Enforcement Closes Deportation Case Against Argentinean Lesbian, Monica Alcota, Based on Ties to Community Including Marriage to her Spouse, Cristina Ojeda

This is wonderful news. Congratulations to this couple and their attorney Lavi Soloway, founder of Stop the Deportations, for doing exactly that - stopping the deportation of Monica Alcota.

According to Lavi, "This is the first time the government has asked an immigration court to close removal proceedings against the gay or lesbian spouse of an American citizen since the formation of an inter-agency prosecutorial discretion working group began its work on November 17 with the goal of finding and closing all 'low-priority' deportation cases."

This is also the third significant high-profile victory for Lavi and clients this year. Earlier this year Out4Immigration along with Get EQUAL rallied behind the efforts of Stop the Deportation and two other couples - Henry and Josh and Alex and Doug.

Read more about Monica and Cristina's case at Stop the Deportations.

Sign and circulate the Out4Immigration petition for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to clearly state in their guidelines that married same-sex binational couples be treated as family in the eyes of immigration law. At least three times this year, sympathetic judges have ruled accordingly, as in the case of Monica and Cristina. But an unsympathetic judge could have ruled differently. We need to be specifically and clearly included in standard guidelines so that there is no room for error and a loving, committed couple cruelly torn apart.

Sign the petition here!

San Francisco Pride Weekend Recap

by Chris Barnett

Out4Immigration's Pride Weekend in San Francisco was a big success. On both Saturday and Sunday Out4Immigration was present at the Marriage Equality USA and GetEQUAL booth, and it was great working alongside other community members demanding equality for all families—and our families!

If you have not seen this week’s petition on Change.org, please check it out (and sign and share!). Volunteers collected signatures all weekend to add to the petition, and had opportunities to talk and connect with a wide range of people, including a number of people in same-sex binational relationships. And as always, Mother Nature pulled back the fog to reveal glorious late June weather, it was pretty great to be there. Plus, when you’re standing in the shadow of City Hall with a veritable rainbow of humanity, beauty, and outrageousness, how can you want to be anywhere else? Thanks to the O4I volunteers and our friends from Stop The Deportations, MEUSA and GetEQUAL for their camaraderie and help!

We had great energy with our contingent and throughout the weekend's celebration. Many thanks to all the wonderful people who turned out to march with us, and helped us have such a great presence! We were delighted that the parade organizers put us right behind Marriage Equality USA, giving that section of the parade a strong equality-oriented presence.

Several rolls of stickers and a whole box or so of our “green cards” later, we found ourselves already turning off at 8^th Street, the end of the parade route! Some of us have been in this struggle longer than others, and while we all care and see the injustice, there were years where we might as well have been yelling into the dark. This year, we were greeted with shouts of approval, whistles, smiles, and applause. People are taking note of the injustice same-sex binational couples face, and we claimed Market Street as our own. People like the idea of equality!

Out4Immigration also co-presented "A Few Days of Respite," a film shown at the Castro Theater on Sunday afternoon as part of the Frameline San Francisco LGBT Film Festival. I have not, in all honesty, been able to catch up with O4I members who were there, so I have to report back on that—but I have no doubt they put their best feet forward and hope the film was good!

Thanks to everyone who turned out to represent and celebrate with us. From parents to small children, friends and loves, it was a proud moment indeed to come together and feel the energy of a crowd beginning to wake up to the injustices we’ve been struggling against for so long. It was a proud day indeed to be in San Francisco. If you couldn’t make it this year, you’ve got almost a whole year to plan for next year! By then, we hope our work and those of our allies in the struggle to stop deportations and recognize our relationships for immigration purposes will be in the past, and we will truly have a reason to celebrate. Help us make this happen--send an email to info@out4immigration.org and let us know you are ready to volunteer.

DEPORTATION HALTED: "I Cannot Thank You Enough"

Via GetEQUAL.

In the shadows of the Statue of Liberty, we see glimpses of freedom.

Henry Velandia's deportation hearing ended a short time ago, and it was quite an event. Because of the pressure that you and thousands of other LGBT advocates across the country created, Henry's case was pushed back to December, opening up the possibility for tens of thousands of other same-sex binational couples to make a case to keep their families together, despite the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Henry and his husband, Josh, are ecstatic that they have more time together, though the fight is certainly not over yet. This week, a wide range of LGBT organizations came together to support Henry and Josh, including Stop the Deportations, All Out, Courage Campaign, Garden State Equality, Out4Immigration, Princeton Equality Project, Immigration Equality, Marriage Equality USA, and Queer Rising. And Henry and Josh's lawyer, the tireless Lavi Soloway, was a force to be reckoned with.

We asked Lavi if he wanted to send along a message to you with an update about what this means for Josh and Henry, for other binational couples, for other LGBT Americans, and for the movement -- here's what he had to say:

"Today was a remarkable day. We're still in legal limbo with this case and with others, but http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmomentum is on our side and the Administration is starting to look for ways to address the disparity in how the U.S. government treats binational same-sex couples. We have wind at our backs, but there are tens of thousand of couples who are facing similar circumstances. We'll fight as hard as we can in the courtroom, but we need activists and organizers to fight as hard as YOU can on the streets. For your work that led to today's outcome, I cannot thank you enough!"

-- Lavi Soloway, co-founder http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifof Immigration Equality and founder of StopTheDeportations.com

Today was a good day…and we don't always have a lot of good days. We'll continue to press the Obama Administration to create a permanent solution to this problem of immigration inequality, but we'll need more people like you in order to do that.

Can you forward this email to your friends, asking them to join the movement for full federal equality at www.getequal.org/join-the-movement

In the shadows of the Statue of Liberty today, we were not silent, and her poem held renewed meaning: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

For equality,

-Heather Cronk, Managing Director

Note: Read today's New York Times coverage of this historic case, click here.