Pride t Work: Tell Congress: Keep Our Families Together!

[Omaha Steve]

Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA), a long-time champion of the LGBT community, will soon introduce The Reuniting Families Act. This landmark immigration bill ends harmful practices - such as long visa wait times and discrimination against LGBT families - that prevent loving families from being together.

In an historic move, Congressman Honda has included lesbian and gay people as part of this remarkable legislation ... marking the first time in Congressional history that lesbian and gay couples have been included as part of a multi-issue immigration bill.

As our country begins a conversation about comprehensive immigration reform, this important first step helps to ensure that, moving forward, we're included, too. The President supports us, and Congress is increasingly on our side. Now, our community can be part of fixing our nation's broken immigration system by supporting their efforts.

Please stand with Congressman Honda and our families, and urge your elected representative to co-sponsor The Reuniting Families Act.

ACT NOW to Urge Your Member of Congress to Cosponsor the Reuniting Families Act!

Please call your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Reuniting Families Act, which will allow gays and lesbians to sponsor our partners for immigration.

Along with the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), Congressman Honda's bill is another sign of historic progress for the lesbian and gay community, and it is critical that our elected representatives know this is an important issue for our community.

There are two QUICK ACTIONS you can DO TODAY to support family unity:

* Call NOW to urge your Representative to cosponsor the Reuniting Families Act! Contact the Capital Switchboard at [phone] to be directly connected to your Representative. (If you don't know who your representative is you can find out at www.congressmerge.com )
* Forward this message to 10 friends immediately and urge them to participate.

Thanks for making sure that comprehensive immigration reform is truly comprehensive - and includes LGBT families!

For more information on immigration discrimination against LGBT families, see www.immigrationequality.org . For more information on the Reuniting Families Act and its supporters, see http://honda.house.gov/legislation/2009/family-reunification/

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
Tell-a-friend: http://www.unionvoice.org/outandorganizing/join-forward.tcl?domain=outandorganizing&r=

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Pride At Work: http://www.unionvoice.org/outandorganizing/join.html?r=

[grantcart]

1. CNN has a surprisingly good story on it

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/03/same.sex.immigration/index.html

Same-sex couples fight for immigration rights

An estimated 36,000 bi-national couples face the same dilemma each year, according to an advocacy group, Immigration Equality.

The issue will be discussed in Congress on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after 10 previous attempts to have hearings on the Uniting American Families Act. The bill has 102 co-sponsors in the House and 17 co-sponsors in the Senate, including Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.