US citizens want the right to live with their foreign partners in their own country
“If you don’t live in your own country you don’t have access to the normal instruments of political action”, says Martha McDevitt-Pugh, a US citizen forced to live in another country to be with her foreign wife. That is why she and fellow Love Exile Robert Bragar took a flight from the Netherlands to Washington DC last week, to speak directly with Democrats at their national meeting. They spoke with Democratic leaders and the people that determine the party’s agenda, hopeful that now the Democrats have a political majority Love Exiles will be able to come back home. Their message is simple: Let US gays and lesbians with foreign partners have the right to live in their own country.
McDevitt-Pugh addressed the Democratic Party Women’s Caucus and the Young Democrats LGBT Caucus. Bragar spoke to the LGBT Caucus, the only non-Party speaker and the only speaker to address an issue not yet on the agenda. “Love is the most important thing,” he told the 200 people in the audience. “It has caused me a lot of problems, but you can do anything for love.” The Democrats with partners living in another country in the audience knew what he meant. They are asking Democratic congress members and senators to support the passage of the ‘Uniting American Families Act’. “Our goal is to put this issue on the Democratic agenda”, explains McDevitt-Pugh. She continues: “If it goes through, it will be possible for us to sponsor our foreign partners for a permit to live in the States, which is what straight couples can do.”
Bragar and McDevitt-Pugh are leaders of the Love Exiles Foundation, established in the Netherlands with communities around the world. Founder Martha McDevitt-Pugh is Californian born, bred and exiled. A former senior manager in Silicon Valley her marriage to a Dutch woman gave her no choice but to leave the country. Americans with a relationship with a foreigner cannot sponsor their same-sex partner for immigration purposes. Unless the partner can independently get a green card, the US citizen has to choose between leaving the country or having a long distance relationship. New York lawyer Robert Bragar is married to a Dutch man. Both live in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands and most European countries foreign partners of gays and lesbians have some immigration rights based on their relationship. The USA has some catching up to do. By not having access to this one right, the right to live in their own country, US gays with foreign partners lose access to all their rights as US citizens. As Chris Bentley, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizen and Immigration Services put it: “There are no immigration benefits available to [gays] based on their relationship. With that said, there’s certainly nothing that says a US citizen cannot move to another country.” LA Weekly, January 9, 2004.
And Hillary Clinton? A favourite for the Presidential candidacy, this Democrat from New York has not yet shown support for UAFA.