Courtesy of Burlington Free Press… Live feed has ended. The marriage bill passed 95-52, which unfortunately, is not a veto proof majority. Governor Douglas has threatened to veto the bill.
As reported earlier this week, Friday may be Shirley Tan’s last day in the United States, leaving behind her partner Jay Mercado and her twin sons as she is deported back to the Philippines, as current immigration law doesn’t allow binational same-sex couples to sponsor their partners.
The offices of state Senators Boxer and Feinstein have been actively working on a private bill, which if passed by Congress, would allow the couple to stay or at least delay the deportation until the family could make proper arrangements to move out of the country. But the odds of such a bill coming together and passing on such short notice is unlikely.
Jackie Speire who represents the couple’s district is also exploring options. As reported in the Bay Area Reporter…
“We’re doing everything we can. [Speier’s] instructed us to see what the remedies are,” said Mike Larsen, Speier’s communications director, who noted they found out about Tan’s case “pretty late in the process.”
“If we can introduce a private bill that will help her, then she’s instructed staff to find out what can we do in time to help her out,” said Larsen.
“Our understanding is that in the Senate when a private bill in an immigration case is introduced, the deportation is stayed immediately, until the end of that term of Congress,” added Larsen, who said in this case that would be early January 2011.
“In the House, the order to stay would not occur until after the private bill made its way through the committee process, so we are currently trying to see … if there’s a way to speed up the committee process or if there’s some other route that we are unaware of,” said Larsen.
He added that based on what they know of Tan’s case, “on the face of that … it appears she should at least get a hearing to determine the viability of her claim, because it does seem to be this previous immigration lawyer, for whatever reasons, didn’t seem to keep her client adequately informed.”
The only other possible option is for Tan’s attorney to request an emergency stay of deportation once Tan is in custody on Friday.
Are hearts go out to them, and this story is further proof that we have a long way to go to achieve equal rights. And how important it is that we get the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) passed now.
Please show your support for their family on Facebook.
That’s right. As reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the number of hate groups have grown from 602 to 926 since the year 2000. The highest concentration not surprisingly falls below the Mason Dixon line, and unfortunately, my own home state of California with 88 groups.
From the SPLC Report…
As in recent years, hate groups were animated by the national immigration debate. But two new forces also drove them in 2008: the worsening recession, and Barack Obama’s successful campaign to become the nation’s first black president. Officials reported that Obama had received more threats than any other presidential candidate in memory, and several white supremacists were arrested for saying they would assassinate him or allegedly plotting to do so.
While the vast majority of hate groups groups are comprised of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, skins heads and the KKK, some have made it their mission to target and vilify the LGBT community as well. Those include…
Noticeably absent from the list…
It’s hard for me not to believe that the rise in the number of hate groups, or at least a rise in their membership, has been fueled in part by anti-muslim sentiment after 9/11, the LGBT community demanding equality, and stoking the fires of hard religious right leading up the election.
And sure, I definitely blame the Bush administration, which allowed an environment of hate, intolerance and economic suffering to grow and fester during his watch, allowing hate groups to flourish. Need we be reminded of the hate we witnessed during the end of the Presidential campaign?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates who appeared on Fox News Sunday was asked about continued funding of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” despite Obama’s plan to repeal the controversial policy.
“Well continues to be the law, and any change in the policy would require a change in the law. We will follow the law whatever it is. That dialogue, though, has really not progressed very far at this point in the administration. I think the president and I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.”
Aubrey Sarvis, Executive Director of Servicemen’s Legal Defense Network (SLDN) responded to Gates’ statement…
Sec. Gates hardly gave a sound reason for kicking ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ down the road — or essentially back tracking on a campaign promise made by his Commander in Chief. I trust the secretary was not speaking for President Obama, who, hopefully, will issue the call for repeal when he sends his Defense Department budget to Congress in a few weeks. This is about timely leadership … It’s also called multitasking. Right now is the time — while we’re engaged in two wars — we need the most qualified men and women serving. This is not the time to keep firing linguists and intelligence analysts because of their sexual orientation. The longer the president and Pentagon delay the issue, the fewer linguists and intelligence analysts the Pentagon will have to call on to fight terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”