Congressman Jerrold Nadler of NY will introduce the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) tomorrow February 12 which would allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners and provide a legal path to U.S. citizenship.

Originally introduced in 2007, the 2009 version of the bill is essentially unchanged and has a growing list of 43 original cosponsors. You can help add to the list of cosponsors before and after the bill’s introduction by doing the following:

• Find out who your U.S. House Representative is. Go to www.congressmerge.com, enter your address, and you will be provided the name of your U.S. Representative.
• Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative.
• Tell your representative’s staff:

I am calling to ask Representative ________________ to be an original cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act of 2009. To cosponsor, he/she must contact Rep. Jerrold Nadler who is the lead sponsor.

The U.S. government discriminates against gay and lesbian binational couples by not allowing us to sponsor our foreign-born life partners for immigration. Because of this, we face the terrible choice of separating from the person we love or leaving our country. As Americans, we should not have to choose between family and country. Please ask Rep. _________________ to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act of 2009.

While not a cosponsor of the 2006 bill, former senator and now President Obama wrote in an open letter to the LGBT community in early 2008 that he worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act, “so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system.”

Rahm Emanuel former Congressman from Illinois and now President Obama’s Chief of Staff was also a cosponsor of UAFA bill.

On a more personal level this issue is of tremendous importance to me. Many of my closest friends live with the threat of forced separation every day, knowing that each day could be their last together. And considering my personal background and history, it is a situation that I could easily find myself in. So it’s hard to remain optimistic and hopeful as friend after friend says goodbye…

But the significance of the introduction of this immigration bill on February 12, on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, shouldn’t be lost on any of us. Like Lincoln before him, Obama must heal a nation that is divided, with the promise of expanding freedom and opportunity to all Americans, regardless of race… regardless of gender… regardless or sexual orientation. The echo’s of Lincoln we see in Obama, give me pause, and give me hope. It makes Lincoln’s words especially relevant now as we hunger for change…

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

For additional information and resources vist

Immigration Equality

Out4Immigration

Keith Olbermman of MSNBC’s Countdown was invited to speak at the Greater New York Human Rights Campaign Gala on Saturday thanks in no small part to the Special Comment he made  on his program the week after the passage of Proposition 8. Olbermann opened his remarks by thanking everyone for all the things that had been said to him since the commentary, and then apologized for not making that commentary ten days earlier…

And in case we need to be reminded …

No! Of course not. What a ridiculous headline! And I certainly don’t mean to make light of today’s events and sincerely hope everyone made it safely through the tornadoes today, having grown up in Colorado I certainly know the drill.

But follow my line of thought, for just a moment. Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern and those of like mind have been notoriously intolerant, homophobic and generally un-Christian (in the truest sense of the word), as of late. Have their recent words warranted God’s wrath?

I think not. And the notion is totally outrageous. But only as outrageous as the claims below made by Kern and others like her…

Recent deadly fires in Australia caused by slaughtering innocents in the womb – Pastor Danny Nalliah

Gays responsible for hurricane Katrina – Pastor Hagee

Gays and lesbians are to blame for the current economic crisis – Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath

Pro-gay legislation provoked floods in Britain – Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle

Gays caused the collapse of Rome – Sally Kern

and of course…

Gays, lesbians, sinners, abortionists, feminists and the ACLU caused 9/11 – Jerry Fallwell

The list above is only a handful. Gays and lesbians, and more recently the “pro-choicers,” have been blamed for a multitude of disasters and cataclysms since the beginning of time.

So is the shoe now on the other foot? The Christian one?

I’m sure I’ll get hammered for this, but someone had to make the point.

Welcome to a new segment called Tuesdays with TED. For those of you don’t know TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is a yearly, invitation-only conference that brings together “the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers” to talk about the issues they are most passionate about. Fortunately for those of us who aren’t invited, the talks are available online.

So starting today and on every Tuesday I will highlight a TED Talk from their massive video library, not necessarily because it may be socially or culturally relevant to what’s going on that particular day (though it just might), but sometimes because it may be relevant and important to me, and hopefully to you as well.

This week’s first segment is called Do Schools kill Creativity? by Sir Ken Robinson, a creativity expert who makes the case for changing our education system so that it nurtures and not undermines creativity. This is an issue close to my heart. Enjoy.