---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Immigration Equality Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force/LA c/o L.A Gay and Lesbian Center/Legal Services Department 1625 North Schrader Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028-9998 (vox) 213-526-2915 (fax) 213-993-7653 (email) LGIRTF@abacus.oxy.edu http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration/lgirtfla.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 1997 NEXT MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING SET FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 12 at 7PM The next informational meeting of Immigration Equality (IE) will be, as usual, on the second Tuesday of the month (August 12) at 7pm. The venue will be the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center (1625 North Schrader Boulevard in Hollywood, two blocks west of Cahuenga Boulevard and one-half block south of Holywood Boulevard.) We will be meeting in Room 204 (on the second floor) in the library of the legal services department. This month's meeting will be for Immigration Equality members in an informational, social meeting. IMMIGRATION EQUALITY MEMBER TO SPEAK ON PERSONAL ASYLUM APPLICATION Patrick Mangto, an Immigration Equality member, will be speaking at this month's meeting on AUGUST 12 at 7:30pm on the personal impact for filing for political asylum based on sexual orientation. As the April 1, 1998 deadline approaches more and more people will have to think about whether to file for asylum. Come and hear one person's experience with the process. SOME BENEFITS RESTORED FOR IMMIGRANTS IN BALANCED BUDGET COMPROMISE The balanced budget amendment agreement signed into law August 5 included legislation which restored SSI benefits for elderly, disabled or blind legal permanent residents who would have been denied benefits under last year's anti-immigrant legislative activities. YOU CAN HELP WITH RESEARCH ON LESBIAN AND GAY IMMIGRATION Lionel Cantu, longtime IE member, is a PhD student at UC Irvine, writing his thesis on gay and lesbian immigrants. In order to facilitate his research Lionel has designed an anonymous questionnaire which he would like IE members to complete and return to him. You can contact him at lcantu@orion.oac.uci.edu. AUGUST 22 RALLY TO PROTEST INS DELAY IN NATURALIZATION PROCESS On August 22, there will be a rally at the downtown Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles Ave (where the INS is housed) to protest nearly 350 000 pending natutralization applications filed in Los Angeles county alone. NEED VOLUNTEER FOR SOMEONE TO MANAGE IMMIGRATION EQUALITY CORRESPONDENCE From time to time Immigration Equality gets a number of phone calls and letters from people from all over the world who are desperate to find information about immigration for gay/lesbian/bisexual or HIV-positive individuals. Immigration Equality needs a volunteer to write responses to these people about where they can get information about immigrationg to the United States. If you are interested, let us know by calling us at 213-526-2915. IMMIGRATION EQUALITY SUMMER VISIBILITY CAMPAIGN CONTINUES Orange County Pride is the weekend of August 16-17 and Sunset Street Junction Fair is the following weekend of August 23-24. We need volunteers for people who will be attending who can distribute the yellow postcards of the Emergency Asylum Campaign, as well as informational flyers about Immigration Equality itself. MANY IMMIGRATION RESOURCES AVAILABLE ON THE WEB The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force, our parent organization, has a web site at http://www.lgirtf.org/ The International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission, which has an Asylum Project, is at http://www.iglhrc.org/ The American Immigration Lawyers Association has a very useful website at http://www.aila.org/ Also, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has a website at http://www.usdoj.gov/ins There is also a website devoted to Queer Immigration issues at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration/ The immigration and nationality law firm of SISKIND, SUSSER, HAAS & CHANG has begun offering free copies of INS forms at http://www.visalaw.com/forms The Canadian Law Firm of SMITH & HUGHES has launched an OUT/LAW Immigration site which contains an immigration section at http://www.smith-hughes.com/olimm.htm