CALL TO ACTION!

LGBT families left out of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The only path to full equality is defeat of DOMA. Speak out!

Senate Judiciary Committee to Abandon LGBT Immigration Amendments. Defeat of #DOMA Critical 4 Binational Couples #SCOTUS #CIR http://bit.ly/1a0Jli3 

17 Years Ago Today DOMA Was Introduced In Congress. Since it was signed into law by President Clinton it has caused immeasurable harm to lesbian and gay Americans and our families. It has destroyed marriages, torn apart families, depleted savings, forced us to defer plans to start families, to buy a home, start a business or pursue our education. DOMA has robbed us of years of our lives, it has left us poorer, unable to care for our families, forced into exile, separated from those we love, living in fear of a deportation, hiding in a double closet and enduring a constant, crippling burden of stress that few relationships could survive.

And yet we are still here, tens of thousands of lesbian and gay binational couples, DOMA WARRIORS all of us, not waiting, but fighting. Not sitting on the sidelines, but joining a movement made by us for us. We have empowered each other, and we have created a supportive environment to share our stories and lift ourselves up. DOMA has destroyed much, but our love endures. We have fought this fight for love, and we will win. Keep up the fight every day until DOMA is gone and we have achieved full equality for our families. Do not give up and do not give in. Share your story (derek.tripp@domaproject.org) and donate at a level you can afford to The DOMA Project at www.domaproject.org/donate and love will win in the end.

HELP US DEFEAT DOMA. MAKE A DONATION NOW!

We have 60 days until the Supreme Court rules on DOMA and we must use every day to win this fight in the Court of Public Opinion and ensure all lesbian and gay binational couples are protected, re-united, and treated equally under the law after DOMA is defeated. 

But we cannot do this without you. Donate $25, $50, $100 or $500 …. whatever you can afford. Don’t wait for someone else to do this. Give what you can. We are in this together and we need your support.

Thank you in advance!

My name is Ruben and I am a citizen of the United States of America.  Over 6 years ago, Bruno and I met in Los Angeles and it may sound cliché but it was “love at first sight”. Bruno is from Belgium and was in the US on a work visa, working hard at managing a US business here. I was a successful real estate agent selling beautiful homes in Beverly Hills.

We really “clicked” and it was just a matter of months before we moved in together. We even got a small dog and spent wonderful weekends in our California desert house.

After a year of living together, Bruno asked me if I would move to Europe with him. He felt the need to go back to his roots for a little while and be close to his family as he had been away for so many years. I didn’t hesitate and told him I would be up for it, as long as I could stay close to him.  We were really in love, and being separated was not something we could ever conceive.

Read more about Ruben and Bruno at the DOMA Project

Rika and I met in 1997 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we were both born and raised. We are both film and television editors. I had been on my own for twenty years and had begun to believe that was how it would always be for me. Then, I walked into an edit suite one day and there she was! We worked on a few productions together and found that we enjoyed the experience tremendously. I guess it was inevitable that, in the year 2000, romance would sneak into our relationship. We moved in together in 2001.  Following a traumatic experience that made in living in South Africa really difficult for me, I applied for an EB-1 immigrant visa (one of the rare employment based “green card” categories for which you can self-petition, Employment Based First Preference Alien of Extraordinary Ability)  and it was granted four years later. In 2006, we came to the U.S. and I was admitted as a lawful permanent resident with my green card. We loved it here – being out and about and not having to rush home before dark. We could walk everywhere and, for the first time in our lives, we felt free. On that trip, we met with my immigration lawyer who told us that there was no way I could sponsor Rika as my partner. If we were a heterosexual couple, none of this would be an issue; Rika would have been eligible for a “green card” as my spouse, as a “derivative” family member when my EB-1 petition was granted, or later I could have petitioned for her.  But of course, as a same-sex couple we had none of those rights because our relationship was invisible under the law. The fact that we had been in a committed relationship for six years, had no value in the eyes of immigration law. Therefore, becoming an F-1 (student) visa seemed to be the only option for Rika, until we figured out some other solution that would keep us together in the same country.

Read more about Avril and Rika at the DOMA Project

ANOTHER GAY COUPLE ATTENDS GREEN CARD INTERVIEW!

Shaun and John were smiling outside the Federal Building today after attending their marriage-based green card interview with their attorney, DOMA Project co-founder, Lavi Soloway. After a complete interview and submission of all the supporting evidence, the case was not denied but held for further review. 

Like and share this photo to congratulate Shaun and John for being brave DOMA warriors fighting to defeat DOMA and ensure a smooth transition to a post-DOMA future for all binational couples!

Shaun and John are participants in The DOMA Project’s 3-year advocacy campaign through which gay and lesbian binational couples hold government agencies accountable for discrimination against them caused by DOMA. 

The DOMA Project will continue to fight for all lesbian and gay binational couples. Support our work at www.domaproject.org/donate

My name is Michael Curtis. I am 38 years old. I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For the past ten years, I have lived in California; first in San Francisco and then in Los Angeles. Earlier this year, I moved to Turkey to be with the man that I love.

The story of how I came to meet and fall in love with Erdi begins with an e-mail I received from my father deep in the winter of 2012. (Deep winter meant 65 degrees and brunch outside at Joey’s Café in sunny West Hollywood.) It had been six months since our trip to Germany together in August 2011 and my Dad wanted to have another father-son trip. Since he chose Berlin last time, he left the destination of our new adventure up to me. “Istanbul,” I told him. I’d never been to that part of the world. Together my Dad and I had traveled not only to Germany, but England, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong and China and all over the United States. Traveling is what we loved, our way of spending quality time together, and it was time to make it even more interesting—a Muslim country at the crossroads of East and West.

Read more about Mike and Erdi at the DOMA Project

You could call it fate, coincidence or the stars aligning, but against all odds (including two broken down subway lines), our paths happened to cross in the most unlikely little corner of Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. Whatever led us to Ginger’s Bar on that hot, sunny July afternoon ultimately altered our lives forever. When I met Rachel, there was no denying immediately the connection we shared. I was so comfortable being near her. It was instantly as if we had known each other for a lifetime.

Like most Americans would be, I was enamored with her Liverpool accent. I was taken by her beautiful blue eyes and her witty rapport. We spent a few hours together at the bar before we had to go our separate ways. The next morning I was off to St. Louis to see my nephew for the week. Rachel and I spent the whole week on the phone, texting, talking and sending pictures back and forth. We got to know a lot about each other before we even had our first date; the night I got back from St. Louis. The connection between Rachel and I was so strong that I told my dad, within the first two weeks we were dating, that I was going to marry her.

read more about Jen and Rachel at the DOMA Project

Five years ago, on April 5th, 2008 I was enjoying my last afternoon in my first New York trip and I decided to spend it at an Expo at the Javits Center. I never thought that day my life was going to change forever.

My name is Gabriel Zamora and I am from Mexico. I was working as an EFL/ESL Teacher in Mexico. Joe Lee, my partner, is from New York, and he is a banker.

That afternoon at the Expo I bought a sandwich and a soda for lunch and I sat at one of the tables. I started eating my food when I noticed the guy seating in front of me was staring at me. I got intrigued about it because it was the first time in my life I was in a situation like this one. We looked at each other for some time until our eyes crossed and I smiled. Then, I saw he was getting ready to leave with his friends, and I saw him approaching to me. He didn’t say anything to me; he just gave me a piece of folded paper and walked away. I opened the paper and it said “You look better when you smile” and his phone number.

Read more about Joe and Gabriel at the DOMA Project

Susan & Julie, courtesy of B Docktor Photography

I never intended to fall in love with a non-U.S. citizen. As a naturalized U.S. citizen myself, I was fully aware of the fact that, married or not, my Australian partner, Julie, and I would face multiple hurdles in trying to stay together. A mutual friend introduced us online in 2006. I was living and working in Hong Kong and Julie was in Australia at the time.

We sometimes hesitate to say we met online, as that implies we met on a dating site, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Our mutual friend was having surgery and introduced us to each other so we could share any information we had about this friend’s recovery. We started writing to each other and kept realizing we had a lot in common. We were both musicians, we both knitted (!), we both had similar upbringings, and we both like the outdoors. For two years we just emailed. Then, along came Skype. Julie had a webcam, but I didn’t. On our first Skype session (still just friends), Julie didn’t realize I could see her since she couldn’t see me! I bought a webcam pretty quickly after that!

Read more about Susan and Julie at the DOMA Project

Mark your calendars! 

Register now for our next live stream (simultaneous audio teleconference also available) workshop by email to register@DOMAproject.org which will take place on Sunday April 28, 2013 at 9 a.m. PDT/ 12 noon EDT.

We will be answering the most frequently asked questions by gay and lesbian binational couples. Submit any questions you would like to be considered in this workshop to Derek.Tripp@DOMAproject.org by April 27. 

Please note that the workshop is for informational purposes and answers provided do not constitute legal advice. We will answer questions of a general nature, but we cannot answer questions based on the circumstances of a specific individual or couple.

If you participated in our previous workshop, please fill out this anonymous survey to help us improve our work.