Out4Immigration protest LGBT platform exclusion at DC immigration march

Source: Out4Immigration

Thanks to all Out4Immigration members who rallied in DC over the weekend as part of the Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) march and in San Francisco yesterday, with a march through downtown to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. Thanks in large part to the actions of Todd Fernandez (second from left in the photo) in organizing an 11th hour phone bank to the Center for Community Change (CCC) on Friday afternoon, a same-sex binational couple was given a speaking slot at the DC rally.

Until Todd put out the word to our members and allies – there were no plans for an LGBT voice among the more than 200,000 immigrant rights’ activists who descended on Washington (although there were plenty of us in the crowd - those pictured with Todd, including Donald Hitchcock from ACT On Principles, second from right, wore face masks to protest our silence). It is essential that whenever there is a rally for immigrant rights and comprehensive immigration reform in the coming weeks that we come out and demand our families are included in this battle.

Comprehensive immigration reform is not “comprehensive” unless it includes everyone affected by the broken immigration system. This includes same-sex binational couples, LGBT Americans with foreign partners who are denied the same rights as our heterosexual counterparts to sponsor our partners for a green card.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, we are welcomed into the immigrant rights’ fold, thanks in large part to Amos Lim. From the very early days of the battle for same-sex binational couple immigration rights, Amos worked from the ground up to build coalitions with other immigrant rights' groups. He saw the fight for the passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) as two-fold: the bill could pass as a stand-alone, or someday it could be included as part of a much larger immigration overhaul that the United States so desperately needs. When the Bay Area needs someone to talk about our families – there is only one call they make: Amos Lim from Out4Immigration.

Amos’s speech (see text) was well-received by the crowd of 1,500. It was interrupted by applause several times. “I feel the immigrant community here is finally understanding that we are affected, too. They understand that when we talk about family, our family is no different from theirs, and we should not be discriminated against.” Afterward, Amos was approached by many of the marchers who want to tell him we have their support and to thank him for speaking out.

Chris Barnett is another Out4Immigration member who traveled at his own expense to Washington DC last weekend to rally for our rights. He joined up with a small group of other same-sex binational couples who were holding a vigil at the Washington Monument, passing out stickers and fliers, and holding up photos of their partners who they are currently separated from due to our broken immigration system.

On Monday, Chris followed up on a recent Bay Area meeting O4I had with Senator Feinstein’s staff and met with her DC staff. It has been a relentless goal of O4I to get Sen. Feinstein to co-sponsor UAFA. We have been told by her staff that she supports CIR and would prefer to see a bill that reforms the whole system rather than piecemeal legislation. This is good news – but it doesn’t stop us from continuing to ask the senior Senator from the most populous state to stand up for her same-sex binational constituents.

So – again, a big thanks to those mentioned above for stepping up representing all of us. We hope this post inspires you to take a lead in the coming weeks as CIR moves to the center of the national stage. In San Francisco, we owe special thanks to Erik Schnabel for organizing for O4I to have a presence yesterday and Martha McDevitt-Pugh from Love Exiles, who came home from The Netherlands to be at the march. Thanks also go to the sponsors of the march and rally, including Reform Immigration for America, SIREN, CCISCO, BOCA, PIA, SEIU, UFCW Local 5, Dolores Street Community Services, Asian Law Caucus, EBASE, ICIR, and Padres Unidos.

A New Documentary from Immigration Equality

Source: Huffington Post - Feb 14


By Steve Ralls, Director of Communications, Immigration Equality

On January 28, 2009, there was a knock on Shirley Tan's door.

The mother of two, originally from The Philippines, was starting her morning as usual. She was getting her 12-year-old twin sons ready for school, and preparing to see her partner of 23 years, Jay Mercado, off to work. The scene in their home in Pacifica, California, could have been any day in virtually any family's home in America.

That is, until the 7am knock on the door.

When Shirley answered, she was told that agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency were "looking for a young Mexican girl."

In fact, they were looking for her.

The ICE agents produced an order of deportation, which Shirley had never seen before, then handcuffed her and threw her into a waiting van.

Shirley, who had been violently assaulted by a relative in her native Philippines, was detained and told she would be sent back there because her application for asylum, filed years earlier, had been denied. Her attorney, who had moved since the original asylum request was filed, did not receive notice of the denial. Instantly, Shirley's entire family - and the life she had built over two decades with them - was in jeopardy.

Despite the fact that Jay is an American citizen, and that both of her sons are also citizens, Shirley was faced with leaving all of them behind. Because Jay is also a woman, she could not sponsor Shirley for residency, as straight Americans with spouses can do. The twins would be unable to sponsor their mother for residency for another 9 years.

"[W]e can't even protect Shirley," Mercado says in a new film, directed by filmmaker Stewart Thorndike, released today by Immigration Equality, an organization working to end discrimination against lesbian and gay binational families. "They wanted us to be torn apart, and that's something you don't do to a family."

Yet, for more than 36,000 lesbian and gay families like Shirley and Jay's, separation is a very real possibility. Nearly half of those families, like the Tan-Mercados, are also raising young children.

"The lack of recognition for lesbian and gay couples under immigration law is, literally, ripping loving families apart," said Rachel B. Tiven, Immigration Equality's executive director. "For every day that passes without action from Congress, another family faces separation and another child is put in jeopardy of losing a parent."

"People of conscience cannot sit idly by and let this happen," she says. "A generation of children are at risk of losing the only families they know."

Beginning today, house parties across the country will screen the group's new documentary, which is premiering exclusively here at HuffingtonPost Impact (see below). Its debut coincides with the launch of the Immigration Equality Action Fund, which will lobby Congress to pass an immigration reform bill that includes lesbian and gay families.

"This is our moment," Tiven said, referring to pledges by the White House and Congress to tackle immigration reform this year.

Tan remains in the country because of a rare "private bill" introduced on her behalf by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who sponsored the measure after hearing from many people in their community, including her parish priest, who weighed in on behalf of Tan, a Eucharistic minister in the local Catholic church.

Now, Tan and Mercado have joined Immigration Equality in working for passage of the Uniting American Families Act - a bill to end discrimination against lesbian and gay immigrant families - either on its own or as part of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

"What will make me feel safe," Tan says in the film, "is [when] the Uniting American Families Act will pass . . . so I can stay here . . . without any fear that I can be picked up at any time; that I can be deported at any time."

It is a campaign that has taken on personal importance for her sons, Joriene and Jashley, too.

"Why is this happening to our family?," one asks in the film.

"My mom's a good person," his brother adds.

You can make an impact in the lives of Shirley, Jay and their sons - and tens of thousands of other families like theirs - by watching the video, passing it along and visiting www.immigrationequalityactionfund.org to learn more.

"We're premiering this film on Valentine's Day," Tiven said, "in solidarity with every family who just wants to be with the people they love."

US immigration equality: Shirley Tan & Family Advocate in DC

Source: Immigration Equality

At the White House after West Wing meeting

This week Shirley Tan, her partner Jay Mercado, and sons Jashley and Jorienne pressed Congress and the White House for equal immigration rights for gay and lesbian binational families.

The Tan-Mercado family met with several members of Congress, the staff of numerous additional Congressional offices, and, in a West Wing meeting, White House staffers to press for new cosponsors for the Uniting American Families Act and the House Reuniting Families Act, as well as for inclusion of lesbian and gay binational families in comprehensive immigration reform.

Members and hill staff commended the family on – and thanked them for – their advocacy. They made it clear that they will not soon forget the family’s story or the plight of tens of thousands of other families like them. Supportive members told the family that they will continue to prioritize ending discrimination against LGBT immigrant families.

With Senator Dianne Feinstein

With Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcano. The United Methodist Church has endorsed UAFA and the Reuniting Families Act.

With Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO)

With Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

With Congressman Joseph Cao (R-LA)

With Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA)

.

With Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA)

US Congressmen face uphill battle to pass pro-gay immigration reform

Image by azipaybarah via Flickr

Source: Bay Area Reporter

by Matthew S. Bajko

The two congressmen leading the fight for pro-gay immigration reform in Washington acknowledge they have an uphill fight to see their legislation passed by both the House and the Senate.

The Human Rights Campaign chose the lawmakers to be featured speakers at its annual gala in San Francisco Saturday, July 25, and both spoke of the obstacles they must overcome in addressing the discrimination faced by binational LGBT couples.

Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-New York) has spent nearly a decade pushing his Uniting American Families Act, which would allow the same-sex foreign-born partners of LGBT American citizens to immigrate to the U.S. Under the current policy, LGBT Americans cannot sponsor their partners for citizenship like heterosexuals who marry foreign-born spouses.

The result is that binational LGBT couples face difficult decisions about where to live or even if they can remain together. Their options are often limited.

Some live apart for months on end until the foreign-born partner receives permission to visit the U.S. on a tourist visa; or the American citizen must live overseas to be with the person they love until the day their partner gains U.S. citizenship.

Each year since 2000 Nadler has introduced his bill so that an LGBT American citizen does not have to "choose between their partner and their country."

Not only does the American partner suffer, said Nadler, but "their children, partner, and family also suffer." Ending the anti-gay immigration laws would "end this cruelty," he added.

But his bill has failed to gain traction within the House, and the legislation's co-sponsor, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), recently acknowledged to the Bay Area Reporter it has few chances of being passed anytime soon.

Rather than push for a stand-alone bill, Nadler has joined forces with Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose) to push forward the California representative's Reuniting Families Act (H.R. 2709), a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes the pro-gay provisions of Nadler's bill.

"Mike took my language," Nadler said in an interview with the B.A.R. at the HRC fundraiser. "This year or next we will pass comprehensive immigration reform. It's been our focus to get our bill passed in Honda's bill."

Honda applauded his colleague for pushing the issue for so many years. He said he decided to include the pro-gay immigration reform in his bill after a constituent, Judy Rickard, spoke out at a town hall he held in Milpitas about her inability to be with her British-born partner, Karin Bogliolo, for longer than six-month stretches at a time.

"It never dawned upon me it was an issue until she gave her powerful testimony, and I went back to Congress and looked at the bill and said I have no choice but to include all families or we can't call it the Reuniting Families Act," said Honda during his speech.

Honda said he asked himself, "How do we define the word family?"

"To me family means all families, including same-sex partners and their children," he said.

Yet complicating passage of his bill is the fact that the Senate version, introduced by Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), does not include the pro-gay language. Menendez does support the Senate version of Nadler's stand-alone legislation introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy presided over a hearing on his bill June 3, a day before Honda introduced his comprehensive measure in the House.

Similar to Nadler's legislation, Leahy's bill also faces hurdles to becoming law. He has even failed to gain support from Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), despite her recent intervention to block the deportation of lesbian Pacifica resident Shirley Tan.

Nadler said he doesn't know what will happen in the Senate but is hopeful that the House will pass Honda's bill and the pro-gay language "will be in the negotiations for the overall bill" that gets sent to the White House. President Barack Obama has signaled that he supports ending the discriminatory policies toward LGBT binational couples.

Honda has lined up 67 co-sponsors as of this week for his legislation, far short of what is needed to pass it out of the House. At the HRC dinner he said that 34 members of Congress who received 100 percent scores on the national LGBT lobbyist group's congressional scorecard are among those who have yet to sign on to his legislation.

A check this week by the B.A.R. between the listed co-sponsors of Honda's bill and the HRC scorecard for 2008 found only 32 current House members who had perfect scores but had yet to sign on as co-sponsors. The discrepancy is likely due to the resignations this year of both California Representatives Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek) for posts in the Obama administration.

In the Bay Area the perfect scorers absent from Honda's list of co-sponsors include George Miller (D-Martinez); Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto); and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), though due to her position Pelosi refrains from co-sponsoring most legislation. Also absent from the list is Speier, who won a special election for her seat last year, despite the fact the bill incorporates the language from the legislation she is co-sponsoring with Nadler.

At the HRC dinner, Honda asked the audience to request that the organization include the Reuniting Families Act as part of its next scorecard so that the scores reflect those House members who do not back his bill.

David Stacy, an HRC senior public policy advocate, told the B.A.R. the group prefers to score members on their actual votes, rather than co-sponsorship of bills. Since they have in the past scored members on their support for Nadler's stand alone bill, he said it is unlikely they would also score support for Honda's legislation.

"It wouldn't make sense to score both since they are the same issue," said Stacy. "We are strongly supportive of the Reuniting Families Act and hope we have a vote to score."

The next scorecard will not be released until October 2010, and any decisions on how to tabulate it won't be made until closer to the end of the congressional session, said Stacy.

This year's gala did not see a return of the protests at last year's event that had many local and state politicians boycotting or refusing to attend the HRC dinner. Local activists picketed the fundraiser to show their outrage at HRC's backing in the fall of 2007 a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that excluded protections for transgender people.

At the last minute Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa backed out as a keynote speaker due to union backing of the pickets. The only gay politician to attend was Campbell City Councilman Evan Low.

Notably absent last year was out San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who stayed home and catered a pasta and pizza dinner for the protesters. Attired in a ruffled tuxedo shirt, Dufty's attendance at this year's fundraiser raised eyebrows among some in the crowd.

One member of HRC's Federal Club, consisting of people who give $5,000 or more annually, said Dufty was not welcome at the event and his involvement in last year's protest would impair his ability to attract HRC's local big money donors to fund his mayoral run in 2011.

Dufty said even HRC President Joe Solmonese told him he was "surprised" to see him at the dinner. But when Dufty was introduced among the list of local politicians at the event, his name elicited a loud round of applause. Joining Dufty at the event was his new out colleague on the board, Supervisor David Campos .

Openly gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) also returned to this year's event and was given a speaking slot from the stage in honor of his involvement kicking off the first local HRC gala 25 years ago. Back then Leno and his late partner served as table captains and sold 10 tickets.

The second year they sold 12 tables, and by the third event, Leno had been named co-chair of the dinner. Since then Leno has been a longtime Federal Club member and he predicted, "We are going to see magic happen the next couple of years" due to HRC's leadership in Washington.

Solmonese referred to the ENDA controversy in his prepared remarks, once again joking that the most difficult job within HRC is to be a co-chair of the San Francisco gala.

"Remember last year's dinner? It occurred to me we have gotten this far by knowing who our friends are and who our real enemies are," said Solmonese. "Last year the concept of who our friends are got a little muddled."

He defended HRC's stance on the ENDA bill, arguing that the strategy had set the stage for passage of a trans-inclusive ENDA by the House this year.

"We did the work. We never wavered. And here we are," he said.

California lawmakers enmasse raise Iraqi gay pogrom with Obama, Clinton

Image via Wikipedia

June 2, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
The Honorable Barbara Boxer

Dear President Obama, Madame Secretary, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer:

We are writing to urge you to call upon the government of Iraq to prevent the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and to protect the right of all Iraqi citizens to be free from all forms of cruel, inhumane or degrading punishment.

Deeply disturbing reports are emanating from Iraq with regard to the torture, beating and killing of LGBT people in that country. The increasing violence is being led by religious zealots who are targeting these individuals simply because of their sexual orientation. This year alone, 63 people have been tortured or killed as a result of religious decrees against gay citizens. A prominent Iraqi human rights activist has reported that Iraqi militia have deployed painful and degrading forms of torture and punishment against homosexuals that must be stopped.

The United States is spending trillions of dollars to fight a war that is based on bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people. These unspeakable actions of violence on Iraqi citizens are in direct violation of our purpose for being in that country and of the stated policy of non-discrimination of the new administration.

Local police in Iraq have issued a statement that, "the extra-judicial killing of any citizen is a crime punishable by law. No one has the right to become a substitute for judicial authorities or executive authorities, and if there are complaints against individuals, there=2 0is law and there are police and there are government agencies. No group or class has the authority to punish people instead of the state." The violence occurring against LGBT Iraqis is in direct contradiction to this statement.

As one of the signatories to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Iraqi government has an obligation to protect the right to life (Article 6) and the right of all its citizens "to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" (Article 7). Current actions belie this obligation.

To protect the lives of LGBT Iraqis, we urge you to please take immediate action to stop the violence. We believe that a strong public condemnation of these actions must come from you and our other national leaders, along with the necessary pressure on the Iraqi government to protect the life and liberty of all its citizens.

Sincerely,

1. MARK LENO, Senator 3rd SD [letter organiser]
2. TOM AMMIANO, Assemblyman 13th AD
3. CHRISTINE KEHOE, Senator 39th SD
4. JOHN A. PÉREZ, Assemblyman 46th
5. JIM BEALL, Jr., Assemblyman 24th AD
6. JULIA BROWNLEY, Assemblywoman 41ST
7. SANDRÉ R. SWANSON, Assemblyman 16th AD
8. TOM TORLAKSON, Assemblyman 11th
9. MARTY BLOCK, Assemblyman 78th AD
10. MARIKO YAMADA, Assemblywoman 8th
11. 20 PEDRO NAVA, Assemblyman 35th AD
12. ANTHONY PORTANTINO, Assemblyman 44th
13. JERRY HILL, Assemblyman 19th AD
14. HECTOR DE LA TORRE, Assemblyman 50th AD
15. MIKE FEUER, Assemblyman 42nd AD
16. FELIPE FUENTES, Assemblyman 39th AD
17. CATHLEEN GALGIANI, Assemblywoman 17th AD
18. CURREN D. PRICE Jr., Assemblyman 51st AD
19. NORMA J. TORRES, Assemblywoman 61st AD
20. JOSEPH S. SIMITIAN, Senator 11th SD
21. ELAINE ALQUIST, Senator 13th SD
22. ALAN LOWENTHAL, Senator 27th SD
23. LELAND YEE, Senator 8th SD
24. GILBERT CEDILLO, Senator 22nd SD
25. JENNY OROPEZA, Senator 28th SD
26. GLORIA ROMERO, Senator 24th SD
27. GLORIA NEGRETE MCLEOD, Senator 32nd SD
28. LOU CORREA, Senator 34th SD
29. LONI HANCOCK, Senator 9th SD
30. LOIS WOLK, Senator 5th SD
31. PATRICIA WIGGINS, Senator 2nd SD
32. ELLEN CORBETT, Senator 10th SD
33. CAROL LIU, Senator 21st SD
34. FRAN PAVLEY, Senator 23rd SD
35. BONNIE LOWENTHAL, Assemblywoman 54th AD
36. WILLIAM W. MONNING, Assemblyman 27th AD
37. ISADORE HALL III, Assemblyman 52nd AD
38. MARY SALAS, Assemblywoman 79th AD
39. MIKE DAVIS, Assemblyman 48th AD
40. PAUL FONG, Assemblyman 22nd AD
41. WARREN T. FURUTANI, Assemblyma n 55th AD
42. JARED HUFFMAN, Assemblyman 6th AD
43. BOB BLUMENFIELD, Assemblyman 40th AD
44. ALEX PADILLA, Senator 20th SD
45. PAUL KREKORIAN, Assemblyman 43rd AD

US gay immigration: Senate hearings begin with tears, lack of empathy

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committe held the first-ever hearing on the Uniting American Families Act, which would equalize the status of foreign-born same-sex partners of American citizens. Heterosexual Americans can earn citizenship for their foreign partners by marrying them. Gays, obviously, cannot do that, effectively making a gay American and his or her foreign spouse legal strangers.

Testifying was Shirley Tan, a Fillipino woman who has been with her American partner for 23 years. Together, they are raising twelve-year-old twin boys. She originally left the Phillipines after suffering a violent attack from a man who murdered her mother and sister (one of the reasons why Tan does not want to return to her native country, aside from the fact that her partner and children live in the U.S., is that the man who brutalized her has since been released from prison.) Tan was originally scheduled to be deported on April 3rd, but won a reprieve after Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a private bill allowing her to stay in the country temporarily.

As you can see in the video below, one of Tan's children started crying within seconds of the start of her testimony. At the sight of this, Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy stopped the hearing and asked Tan if her son might want to sit in another room, where presumably a Senate staffer would console him for the duration of what was clearly an emotionally fraught experience.

For most people, the sight of a 12-year-old boy in tears at the prospect of his mother being deported halfway around the world would invoke some sympathy. Unmoved, however, was Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, ranking minority member of the Committee and the only Republican to bother to attend the hearing. At the sight of the weeping boy, according to a Senate staffer who was at the hearing, Sessions leaned towards one of his aides and sighed, "Enough with the histrionics." Sessions's press secretary did not return a call seeking comment.



More about Shirley Tan and Jay Mercado:

Source

Senator Dianne Feinstein, et al save Shirley Tan

By Melanie Nathan

Today Senator Feinstein introduced a very rare private bill on behalf of Shirley Tan; Shirley will not have to leave the USA for now and hopefully never. The essence of its introduction is that Tan does not have to leave the USA on May 10th, in terms of the voluntary order issued by DHS. This enables her to stay in the USA, legally, until the private bill passes ( a rare occurrence)- and if it does not come up for a vote then she can stay for the duration of this Congress’s session, which has approximately a year and nine months left. However Shirleys ultimate saviour will be UAFA and nothing else!

This is unbelievably miraculous and indeed an extraordinary measure on behalf of the family. This also gives all our wonderful activists, LGBT organizations, and community suporters and opportunity to hit the streets, the phones, the faxes, the e-mails, the blogs etc. and to fight like crazy for the Uniting American families ACT (UAFA) - in truth the only real long term option for Shirley and the 40,000 other couples/families in this dire situation.

Hence the fight has truly just begun. We now have a face and a family to the desperate situation of all Binational families.

A great big thanks from the Tan-Mercado family to Rep. Speier and her amazing staff as well as Sen. Feinstein and her staff, all of whom showed extraordinary solicitude and diligence through the process. A special mention to the organizations that provided guidance and support; Marriage Equality, Immigration Equality, Out4 Immigration, Love Exiles and all the Media that remained so patient and supportive.

Senator Boxer is co- sponsoring UAFA and we now hope that Sen. Feinstein will do the same as many many others are in as bad a predicament as Shirley Tan has been.

When I spoke to Jay today she was crying with joy and said the whole family including the boys were absolutely overwhelmed with emotion. The news was conveyed to her directly by Senator Feinstein’s office. It has been a long and arduous process and so a very special thank you goes to Attorney Phyllis Beech, San Francisco and Fresno. I will write more later - but now I have to call and tell everyone the good news.

A great big thanks to all the offersof support and help - please join the fight for UAFA as there are many couples suffering the lack of rights. A special thanks to the straight Felipino Organizations andmainstream Press who came forward and recognized the impotance of family and offered all out unconditional support for Shirley and Jay.

Source

Lesbian mother gets a US deportation delay

A native of the Philippines and the mother of twin boys born in the Bay Area who had been threatened with deportation today has won a temporary stay to remain in the United States and appeal her case.

Shirley Tan, whose partner of more than two decades is a U.S. citizen, had her deportation delayed by the Department of Homeland Security until April 22. The stay gives Tan more time to make the case that she should be able to remain in the country legally. Tan and her partner, Jay Mercado, have been expecting to move to the Philippines with their sons if Tan was forced to leave the U.S.

The stay — obtained with the help of Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — "gives them hope," said Melanie Nathan, a Marin County mediator working with the couple.

Since Sunday, when the Mercury News first reported Tan's story, her case has received heavy media coverage and become a rallying point for gay-rights groups that say the nation's immigration laws need to be changed to account for same-sex couples.

Because federal law limits the definition of marriage to a man and a woman, foreign same-sex partners of U.S. citizens don't have the same route to legal permanent residence extended to heterosexual spouses. A bill in Congress would allow a U.S. citizen to sponsor a foreign same-sex partner for legal residency.

Source