Week of Oct 7
This week the Department of Homeland Security issued written guidelines for how to proceed in deportation cases involving same-sex binational couples. This action follows up a promise made by the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napalitano last week.
According to the memo there are three criteria that must be met before any same-sex relationship will be considered a “family relationship”:
Same-sex relationships that rise to the level of “family relationships” are long-term, same-sex relationships in which the individuals —
- are each other’s sole domestic partner and intend to remain so indefinitely;
- are not in a marital or other domestic relationship with anyone else; and
- typically maintain a common residence and share financial obligations and assets.
If these criteria are met, immigration officials should view these relationships as “ties and contributions to the community”.
This is the first time binational couple are receiving protection in writing from deportation.
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The fight against ex-gay therapy moved to New Jersey this week. New Jersey Assemblyman Timothy Eustance (D) said he would introduce a bill similar to the one recently signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown (D).
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Bettye Lane, a promenint photographer of social movements died last month of cancer. She was 82.
According to the New York Times, Lane “gained wide recognition for her rich trove of pictures documenting the feminist movement in the 1970s and ’80s.”
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‘Guiding Light’ actress Maureen Garrett came out publicly this week in an interview with Out.
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New rules have gone into effect in Ontario, Canada that allow people born in the provence to change the gender designator on their birth certificates with out having to under go gender realignment surgery. In order to have the document changed a person only needs to provide a letter from a practicing physician or a psychologist.
The new change stems from a ruling by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario this April. The tribunal found that the requirement was discriminatory, “added to the stigma felt by members of the transgender community and reinforced stereotypes surrounding how they experience gender.”
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