Immigration Equality

Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force/L.A.

c/o L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center / Legal Services

1625 North Schrader Boulevard / Los Angeles, CA 90028-9998

voice: 323.526.2915 / fax: 323.993.7653 / e-mail: lgirtf@abacus.oxy.edu

web: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration/lgirtfla.html

The last(?) meeting of Immigration Equality will be on the second Tuesday of this month--Tuesday December 14--at 7pm at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center (1625 North Schrader Boulevard in Hollywood, two blocks west of Cahuenga Boulevard and one-half block south of Hollywood Boulevard). We will be meeting in Room 204 (on the second floor) in the library of the Legal Services Department. This month’s topic will be "Does Immigration Equality have a future?"

Thanks to volunteer Chaz Barcenilla Immigration Equality is launching a campaign to raise awareness about discrimination in immigration facing same-sex binational couples. Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) is proposing a legislative solution to this problem by introducing a bill in February 2000. We need stories from same-sex binational couples detailing how they are negatively impacted by current immigration law. We also need couples to meet with Los Angeles area Members of Congress to indicate support for the legislation.

Contact Chaz at 310.585.3266 or LoveKnowsNoBorder@yahoo.com

After more than 5 years of service Ron Buckmire is stepping down as the Co-ordinator for Immigration Equality. This newsletter may be the last one you receive in the mail. If you are interested in seeing Immigration Equality continue you should come to this month’s meeting.

PlanetOut News reported December 2 that The Constitutional Court of South Africa has ruled that foreign partners of gay and lesbian citizens must be afforded the same immigration rights as married couples. In addition, the Court took the unusual step of actually modifying the South Africa immigration statute in question to give "partner[s] in a permanent life-partnership" the same rights as married couples regarding immigration. South Africa thus joins an increasing list of countries including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and all the Scandinavian countries allowing same-sex binational couples to immigrate.

There are already over 30 Los Angeles area email addresses on our list.

If you have an email address and you would like to have more regular communication with other gay and lesbian immigrants in Southern California, you should send your email address to LGIRTF-LA@abacus.oxy.edu

The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force, our parent organization has a website at http://www.lgirtf.org/

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which has an Asylum Project,

is at http://www.iglhrc.org/

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the most prominent U.S. organization devoted to gay and lesbian legal issues has a section of its website devoted to immigration at

The Cato Institute and The National Immigration Forum have placed the text of their 1995

report on demographic and economic facts of Immigration in the U.S. on the web, at

The National Immigration Forum has a website at

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has a very useful website at http://www.aila.org/

The Stonewall Immigration Group, our sister organization in the United Kingdom has a website at

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has its official website at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/

The law firm of Siskind et al has launched a website which has copies of actual INS forms at http://www.visalaw.com/

The Canadian law firm of SMITH & HUGHES has an OUT/LAW Immigration site at

The Queer Resources Directory, the oldest queer internet archive, has a section devoted to

immigration at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration