Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Advocates Seek to Empower LGBT Immigrants

Various laws and programs are helping LGBTQ immigrants who have problems because they are immigrants, and often undocumented.    - - Donna Poisl

by Chris Carson, Bay Area Reporter

When Amy Lin pulled her mother aside and said, "I like girls too, are you okay with that?" her mother, who moved Lin to the U.S. from Taiwan when Lin was 12, looked at her and said, "It doesn’t matter, that’s what America is for."

But when Lin, who is now a student at UCLA and a volunteer for Asian Students Promoting Immigration Rights through Education, or ASPIRE, came out as an undocumented immigrant, she realized it wouldn’t be as easy to find that same acceptance.

"I sort of hid my identity in high school," Lin said last week at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church as part of a panel discussion called "What’s Beyond DOMA in Immigration Reform: The Next Steps for Women and LGBTQ Communities."

"I thought that I can’t be both," Lin explained. "You’re sort of marginalized as undocumented already, adding that you’re queer, you’re worse."
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Doma not only took away our freedom, it caused us emotional anguish that only some may know, it caused us illness, it shattered parts of our family, and quite nearly actually killed us. It was like a very slow murder, and we don’t say that lightly - that and then being caught up in the mind blowing bureaucracy that sadly even infiltrated the very equal rights groups that were supposed to be helping people like us, you’ll notice that tons of them all of a sudden popped up as soon as Doma became headlines.


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