Immigration Policies and Gay Rights – Contradictions

Oh, the contradiction of it all.

Obama to grant benefits to same-sex partners of fed employees

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama will sign a memorandum Wednesday granting health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, two senior administration officials said.

The signing will take place in the Oval Office and follows sharp criticism of the president over a Justice Department motion filed last week in support of the Defense of Marriage Act — which opposes same-sex marriage — that used the government’s interest in opposing incestuous marriages to support its position against same-sex marriage.

This is a nice gesture on Obama’s part.  It appears to be a tiny olive branch in the war for equal rights.  Not exactly what was expected, but it is a start.  But, on the other hand, disparity continues to flourish everywhere.

Gay couples forced to flee U.S. over immigration law

San Angelo mayor last month resigned his post and moved to Mexico to live legally with his partner.

Austin-American Statesman: Sunday, June 14, 2009

SAN ANGELO — The mayor of this West Texas sheep ranching town offered a stunning explanation when he suddenly resigned last month: He was in love with a man who was an illegal immigrant and had gone to Mexico.

They had to move, he said, because there was no legal way for them to remain together in the United States. Same-sex couples can’t secure green cards for their partners like heterosexual spouses can.

“It wasn’t a decision that any U.S. citizen should have to make,” former Mayor J.W. Lown said from Mexico. “I left a home. I left a ranch. I left a promising political career.”

His local prominence and his departure on the day he was supposed to be sworn in for a fourth term caused jaws to drop, but it also became a high-profile example of the thousands of Americans who face a similar choice — separate or move abroad .

About 36,000 Americans are in this situation, said U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., citing information from the advocacy group Immigration Equality.

Well, maybe its just a Texas thing.  Depending on where you are in Texas, you can travel from the most modern, progressive space-age city into the stone age.  There is a wide range of culture in between.  Progress can start somewhere and trickle into the corners of this country at an excruciating pace. The right for gays to marry is withheld, and couples who cannot get legally recognized are subject to separation when one is deported.  Once the Immigration Agency gets added into the mix, enforcement of the most backward laws takes front seat. It’s not exclusively the agency’s fault, the laws they enforce are too vague and antiquated to make much sense.  Based on a terrorist event eight years ago, and based on the imposition of primitive religious beliefs into the government’s business, everyone is still suspect.

Any progress made on one front is knocked down on another.  Immigration laws are seperating families with no remorse.  Sending wives of dead soldiers back to where they were born.  Uprooting businessmen who have contributed to their American communities for years, is an everyday event.  Immigration laws do not focus on the violent destructive crimes that they need to, they choose the easy, stationary targets to increase their numbers.  A lot of media play is given to drug smuggling, but pure numbers reveal that Immigration Laws cannot distinguish between good and bad.  So, like America’s history of “strategic bombing”, the collateral damage is unbearable and unacceptable.