Religious groups are threatening to sink any immigration reform legislation that includes language allowing the foreign partners of gay and lesbian US citizens to stay in the country legally, work legally, obtain citizenship, etc., just like the foreign partners of straight Americans. Stripping new rights for gay and lesbian couples from the immigration reform package was inevitable and predictable—I predicted the inevitable here—so I'm not surprised by this development. Even the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference prefers no immigration reform to immigration reform that affords some rights to same-sex couples. That's hate for you. But this detail from the Washington Post jumped out at me:
Another Washington gay couple, who requested that their names not be published because the foreign partner is a Latino man currently living in the country under false pretenses and the American partner is a prominent Republican whose identity could easily lead authorities to the other man, said gays and lesbians fall in love in the same unpredictable way as straight people. Sometimes, the object of that love happens to be a foreigner."When you love someone, it feels the same," said the Latino man, who is in the country on a tourist visa and has been working in violation of it. He is afraid that his immigration status could be exposed at any time, and he could be forced to leave. He travels outside the country periodically to keep his tourist visa valid, always making sure when he presents his visa at the border that he has an air ticket showing when he plans to leave the United States.
A prominent and presumably closeted Republican with an illegal Latino immigrant for a boyfriend—if the two men were building a Mosque near Ground Zero for gay Muslims who are in the country illegally they would hit the GOP hate-a-thon trifecta.
For the record: I don't want to know who this "prominent Republican" is—I don't want him publicly identified if it results in his boyfriend being deported—but you would think that gay man whose boyfriend was an illegal immigrant would consider bolting the gay-bashing, immigrant-bashing, pro-gay-reforms-blocking GOP. Love is... being a single-issue voter.
More info on immigration equality here.