Five gay couples will marry in
Amsterdam to protest U.S. immigration law and urge Congress to pass
gay-inclusive immigration reform.
The five US-Dutch couples will be
married on the “I Do Boat” next weekend by Amsterdam Mayor Job
Cohen.
The boat is being sponsored by the
Amsterdam City Council and the Love
Exiles Foundation, a group working for marriage equality in the
U.S. for bi-national couples.
Federal law denies gay and lesbian
couples the right to sponsor an immigrant spouse to become a U.S.
citizen under the Defense of Marriage Act, often forcing bi-national
couples to live abroad.
Love Exiles Foundation was founded by
Americans Martha McDevitt-Pugh and Bob Bragar, who say they are
living in exile in the Netherlands to be with the ones they love
because the U.S. government will not recognize their Dutch marriages.
An estimated 36,000 bi-national gay
couples are denied equal treatment, according to Immigration
Equality.
Last month, California Representative
Michael Honda introduced the Reuniting Families Act, a comprehensive
immigration reform package that includes New York Representative
Jerry Nadler's Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which would
allow gay Americans to sponsor an immigrant partner for citizenship.
The decision to include the UAFA in the
Reuniting Families Act has created a rift among immigration reform
backers.
Both the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
(NHCLC), major allies in securing comprehensive immigration reform,
decried the gay provisions.
“[The gay provisions are] a slap in
the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration
reform,” Reverend Samuel Rodriguez of the NHCLC told Politico.com.
On Saturday the five newly married
couples, now forced to live in exile, will join the chorus of
bi-national gay couples and allies asking Congress to pass
gay-inclusive immigration reform.
But even gay rights backers admit
they'll have a steep incline to overcome.
“You got two very tough issues –
the rights of same-sex couples and immigration,” openly gay
Congressman Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, told the
Washington Blade. “You put them in the same bill, and it
becomes impossible. We just don't have the votes for it.”