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Out4Immigration Applauds Connecticut's OK to Same-Sex Marriage

by Kathy Drasky
Connecticut becomes the third state in the nation, after California and Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriage, effective October 28. State Supreme Court ruling (4-3) cites “equal protection clause” of the state constitution in ruling that civil unions are discriminatory. All couples in Connecticut now qualify for full state marriage rights. Federal marriage rights still denied. Same-sex binational couples cannot use state marriage laws or the marriage laws of other countries to solve immigration discrimination issues.
Synopsis:
Connecticut’s Supreme Court has leveled the playing field. The first state to approve civil unions through its legislature now says that the civil unions are a “separate and unequal” alternative to marriage. Citing the state’s equal protection clause, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that “gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice…. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others." Connecticut now joins California and Massachusetts as the third state in the nation to grant same-sex couples full and equal marriage rights. However, because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), these state laws do not entitle same-sex couples to the 1,138 federal rights that accompany opposite-sex marriages. Included among these laws is the right of an American citizen or permanent resident to sponsor a foreign spouse for immigration purposes. Out4Immigration, citing a 2006 Human Rights Watch Report, estimates there are some 36,000 same-sex binational couples in the United States who are locked out of federal immigration protections.

Quotes from Mickey Lim, Vice President, Out4Immigration
“Out4Immigration applauds the actions of the state of Connecticut to provide equal marriage rights for all of its citizens. Each state that takes this forward step to end discrimination for its people shines a spotlight on the federal government and its failure to treat all citizens equally.”

“We at Out4Immigration sincerely hope that the decision in Connecticut to grant equal marriage rights to all of its citizens, one that the state’s governor has agreed to uphold, will not be met with the same ugly anti-marriage and discriminatory campaign to take this right away from the people as we are seeing in California with Proposition 8. Out4Immigration urges Californians to say “no” to discrimination and Vote No on Proposition 8 on November 4.”

“Upholding everyone’s freedom to marry, on a state by state basis, will eventually force Congress to reconsider the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the
Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The repeal of DOMA or the passage of UAFA would permanently end the discrimination same-sex binational couples face under current US immigration law.”

Related News Links:

High Court Grants Marriage Rights for Same-Sex Couples (Hartford Courant, 10/10/08): http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hcu-gaymarriage-1010,0,7812756.story
Gay Marriage is Ruled Legal in Connecticut (New York Times, 10/10/08): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/nyregion/11marriage.html
Reactions on Conn.’s Same-Sex Marriage Ruling (Topix): http://www.topix.com/forum/news/gay/TQRMCPEB4G6QIPF9U
Text of Connecticut Supreme Court ruling: http://www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR289/289CR152.pdf

About Out4Immigration:

Out4Immigration is a grassroots organization based in San Francisco that addresses the widespread discriminatory impact of US immigration laws on the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and HIV+ people and their families through education, outreach, advocacy and the maintenance of a resource and support network. For more information, visit http://www.out4immigration.org. To schedule interviews with same-sex binational couples who are available to speak with the media on this issue, including Spanish-speaking couples, please contact Amos Lim, amos [at] out4immigration.org, 415-375-3765 or Kathy Drasky at kathy [at] out4immigration.org, 415-606-2085.

For more information on legislation, reports, etc. related to same-sex binational couples:
The Uniting American Families Act (H.R. 2221): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR02221:
The Uniting American Families Act (S.1328): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN01328:
Human Rights Watch Report: Family Unvalued: Discrimination, Denial, and the Fate of Binational Same-Sex Couples under US Law: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/us0506/

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