Immigration Equality

Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force/L.A.

c/o L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center / Legal Services

1625 North Schrader Boulevard / Los Angeles, CA 90028-9998

voice: 323.526.2915 / fax: 323.993.7653 / e-mail: lgirtf@abacus.oxy.edu

web: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration/lgirtfla.html

The next meeting of Immigration Equality will be on the second Tuesday of the month--Tuesday September 14--at 7pm at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center (1625 North Schrader Boulevard in Hollywood, two blocks west of Cahuenga Boulevard and one-half block south of Hollywood Boulevard). We will be meeting in Room 204 (on the second floor) in the library of the Legal Services Department. This month’s topic will be "What's next in gay and lesbian immigration."

For the first time, the West Hollywood City Council has taken a position on an individual political asylum claim. Last month, the City Council passed a resolution urging the I.N.S. to grant political asylum to a gay Chinese dissident, referred to as "Tim Z." For more information on the resolution contact Councilman Paul Koretz at 323.848.6315 or Councilman Jeffrey Prang at 323.848.6426.

After being passed by the voters in November 1994, Proposition 187, a virulently anti-immigrant statewide ballot measure, was prevented by a federal judge from ever going into effect. The same judge eventually ruled that most of the initiative was unconstitutional. Last month Governor Gray Davis declined to continue the appeal of the case, thus ending the legal fight with the effect that the original ruling stating that Proposition 187 is unconstitutional being the final word.

LGIRTF has started a campaign to get same-sex couples to talk with federal legislators about amending the Immigration and Naturalization Act to assist in the immigration of non-citizen partners. In particular in New York binational couples have been talking with U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler. In Los Angeles, Immigration Equality is looking for couples who will be willing to visit their congressional representatives. Please contact Chapter Coordinator Ron Buckmire at 323.259.2536 if you are interested in participating.

If you have an email address and you would like to have more regular communication with other gay and lesbian immigrants in Southern California, you should send your email address to LGIRTF@abacus.oxy.edu

The dates of the Diversity Visa "Lottery" (DV-2001) are October 4 thru November 3. This is a program by which 55 000 permament resident visas are made available to "diversify" the pool of immigrants to the U.S. It requires a very simple (one-page) application process. Anyone can apply. Immigration Equality and the Immigration Law Project of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center will be co-sponsoring a couple of information sessions during the month of October.

The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force, our parent organization has a website at http://www.lgirtf.org/

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, which has an Asylum Project,

is at http://www.iglhrc.org/

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the most prominent U.S. organization devoted to gay and lesbian legal issues has a section of its website devoted to immigration at

The Cato Institute and The National Immigration Forum have placed the text of their 1995

report on demographic and economic facts of Immigration in the U.S. on the web, at

The National Immigration Forum has a website at

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has a very useful website at http://www.aila.org/

The Stonewall Immigration Group, our sister organization in the United Kingdom has a website at

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has its official website at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/

The law firm of Siskind et al has launched a website which has copies of actual INS forms at http://www.visalaw.com/

The Canadian law firm of SMITH & HUGHES has an OUT/LAW Immigration site at

The Queer Resources Directory, the oldest queer internet archive, has a section devoted to

immigration at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/immigration