BEING
BORN
IN
this
country
does
not
give
you
full
citizenship
rights.
Nor
does
being
born
in
this
country
guarantee
you
life,
liberty
and
the
pursuit
of
happiness.
People
who
enter
this
country
without
proper
documentation
are
called
illegal
aliens.
But
those
of
us
who
are
born
here
and
are
lesbian,
gay,
bisexual,
transgender
and
queer,
women,
or
people
of
color
are
all
treated
as
resident
aliens.
America
has
always
maintained
a
separate
and
unequal
society
for
some
of
its
own,
and
there
is
no
greater
moment
for
the
gay
civil
rights
movement
to
shed
light
on
America’s
hypocrisy
concerning
full
U.S.
citizenship
rights
than
through
the
issue
of
immigration.
Very
little
separates
these
gay
Americans
and
undocumented
immigrants
when
it
comes
to
marriage
equality,
adoption
rights,
housing,
health
and
labor.
And
through
the
immigrations
challenges
faces
faced
by
binational
gay
couples — an
American
with
a
non-American
same-sex
partner — we
see
perfectly
how
our
plights
our
inextricably
bound.
FULL
CITIZENSHIP
RIGHTS
have
always
escaped
marginal
and
disenfranchised
groups
in
this
country,
and
full
citizenship
has
always
been
the
litmus
test
of
how
invested
America
is
in
having
a
multicultural
democracy.
America’s
investment
in
that
ideal
has
always
been
anemic
when
it
comes
to
its
gay
citizens.
Take
marriage,
for
example.
Just
as
federal
laws
in
this
country
do
not
recognize
unions
between
U.S.
citizens
and
their
non-citizen
same-sex
partners,
neither
do
these
laws
recognize
the
union
of
two
queer
U.S.
citizens,
unless
you
reside
in
Massachusetts,
and
then
it’s
only
recognized
by
the
state.
But
Massachusetts
has
its
own
reinforced
borders
when
it
comes
to
same-sex
unions.
With
the
recent
reaffirmation
of
a
1913
law
originally
intended
as
a
color
line
to
prohibit
interracial
couples
from
coming
into
Massachusetts
to
marry,
those
same-sex
couples
who
do
not
reside,
or
have
no
plans
to
reside,
in
the
Bay
State
cannot
come
here
to
legally
marry.
And
then
there
is
the
issue
of
housing
rights
for
gays
and
immigrants,
both
of
which
face
the
“there
goes
the
neighborhood”
syndrome.
We
are
all
too
familiar
with
classic
tales
of
Negrophobia — past
and
present — when
one
black
family
moves
into
the
neighborhood
and
white
flight
takes
hold.
America
has
always
feared
the
browning
of
America,
so
too
does
this
country
fear
the
gaying
of
America.
It’s
one
thing
to
have
gay
bookstores,
gay
bars,
gay
neighborhoods,
and
even
a
couple
of
gay
families
worshiping
in
straight
churches
and
attending
seminaries,
but
for
many
the
boundaries
were
pushed
too
far
and
borders
had
to
be
erected
when
the
Episcopal
Church
consecrated
a
gay
bishop,
Rev.
V.
Gene
Robinson
of
New
Hampshire.
And
the
Catholic
Church
would
rather
shut
its
doors,
like
it
did
to
gay
adoption,
than
allow
open
gay
priests
to
serve.
DESPITE
THE
SIMILAR
plight
faced
by
illegal
immigrants
and
gay
citizens,
it’s
not
so
clear
whether
these
two
communities
will
work
together
in
getting
America
to
open
its
borders,
real
and
artificial.
Certainly
the
two
communities
are
not
mutually
exclusive,
as
evidenced
by
the
recent
by
Human
Rights
Watch
and
Immigration
Equality
entitled
“Family
Unvalued:
Discrimination,
Denial
&
the
Fate
of
Binational
Same-Sex
Couples
Under
U.S.
Law.”
But
it
is
not
so
clear
if
the
larger
LGBTQ
community
sees
this
as
their
issue.
And
I
worry
that
if
gays
in
general
do
not
see
immigration
reform
as
part
of
a
larger
struggle
for
full
citizenship
rights
in
this
country,
then
gay
rights
groups
will
once
again
face
resistance
from
people
of
color
when
pushing
their
marriage
equality
agenda.
Mainstream
gay
groups
historically
have
not
done
well
in
the
area
of
coalition
building
with
other
marginal
populations,
inside
and
outside
geographical
and
ideological
borders.
And
efforts
to
reach
out
to
communities
of
color
have
been
anemic
or
nonexistent.
There
is
no
better
time
than
now
to
build
wider
support
in
our
struggle
for
full
citizenship
rights
than
on
the
issue
of
immigration
reform.
And
if
we
don’t
embrace
this
issue,
then
we
will
have
become
the
obstacle
to
our
own
civil
rights.
