Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Democrats profess they love us, but when it comes to legislation they are willing to hang us out to dry.
Today’s case in point: immigration reform. The original proposal floated by the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight conspicuously left same-sex bi-national couples out of the legislation. Since then, advocates have been pushing to get language into the bill that would protect same-sex couples where one partner is not a U.S. citizen. But squeamish Democrats are dragging their heels, afraid that protecting us will sink the bill entirely.
“Any amendment which might sink the immigration bill, I would worry about,” Sen. Carl Levin (D.-Mich.) told the Associated Press. Levin didn’t say whether he considered LGBT protections an iceberg or not.
Republicans are doing their best to play up the threat, hoping that Democrats will do their dirty work for them. “Opponents will be proposing amendments that, if passed, could collapse this very fragile coalition that we’ve been able to achieve,” said Sen. John McCain (R.-AZ), the failed presidential candidate and all-around angry old man.
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The political reality is that Republicans are split on immigration reform, and Democrats can’t push it through on their own. Senate Democrats may want to include us in the bill, but they also know that whatever they produce has to make it through the House, where conservative Republicans are the majority and are looking for a reason to kill reform.
So, to recap: prospects for immigration reform with protections for LGBT couples look wobbly, ENDA probably isn’t going anywhere, and an anti-bullying bill has pretty low chances too. This bleak situation is the inevitable result of a Congress where Republicans, particularly in the House, are calling the shots. Any gains we make this year are going to be in spite of Congress, not because of it.
gaymaniac
Yes they do. They always have. The only thing is Democrats could be dragged much easier to support our cause than the GOP. You have to deal with reality-the Democratic party is not perfect on LGBT issues but it is our most powerful ally. I prefer the not perfect Dems every time over the GOP from the Dark Ages.
Polaro
The Democratic party is not only not perfect, they are bumbling incompetents. The only reason we put up with the Democrats is because the Republicans are vile. We deserve better. This is wrong. Once again we get thrown under the bus.
hyhybt
The thing is, the problem as it relates specifically to gay people isn’t a matter of immigration law in the first place. It’s marriage law causing trouble. There *ought* to have to be a legal, binding relationship to get someone into the country under the provisions designed for spouses (if we’re going to have any restrictions at all on immigration), and none exists nation-wide except marriage. And marriage *will* be available at the federal level in the not-that-distant future even if the Supreme Court somehow doesn’t kill DOMA.
This is hard enough to do once; do it right the first time.
And that, of course, is ignoring whether they’re *right* that it would sink immigration reform entirely.
MuscleModelBlog.com
Unfortunately, like the article stated, I don’t think that the Democrats are going to risk the immigration reform bill to help out binational same-sex couples. Not a big surprise.
DOFEK
In AZ in Tucson, and WE all know that the fucking IDIOT McCain, did not born in the USA! Panama, to be correct. AdamHomo