Don’t let our families be torn apart

The Uniting American Families Act, which will soon be re-introduced in Congress, is intended to allow LGBT Americans to sponsor our foreign-born spouses, partners and children for U.S. citizenship. We need you to contact your Representative and your Senators to make sure that this bill becomes law.

Please do these two things right now:

1. Send an e-mail to your representative and senators asking them to become an original co-sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act. You’ll find a ready-made letter below, but you should feel free to personalize the letter with your own experiences. (You can find out who your officials are here.)

I urge you to be an original cosponsor on the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) when it’s introduced. UAFA would allow Americans to keep their families together in this country. Under current law, lesbian and gay Americans can’t sponsor their foreign-born partners for residency in the United States. Americans in these families face the daily prospect of having their families torn apart or being forced into exile to stay together.

The UAFA would end that unconscionable practice.

A growing number of U.S. Fortune 500 companies — including high-tech industry leaders — support the UAFA. Under current law, these companies are losing valued employees to foreign competitors in the more than twenty countries where laws allow these families to be together.  Small business owners have also been impacted and been forced to move their businesses abroad in order to keep their families together. In the process, they’ve taken critical U.S. jobs with them.

The UAFA would allow U.S. businesses to recruit and retain the best and the brightest, and would allow Americans to keep their families together in the country they call home.

I hope that you’ll support the Uniting American Families Act as an original cosponsor in the 112th Congress.Thanks for your support. Please contact me to let me know your position on this critical issue.

2. Call your representative or senators about the UAFA. You can reach them via the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121 (you’ll need to call three times to reach each one). Then tell them:

Hi, my name is ___________, I live at (street address and city) and I’m your constituent.

I’m calling to ask Rep./Senator _______ to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act when it’s introduced. Every family deserves to stay together, and no American should have to choose between the person they love and our country.

This act must become law so this form of immigration discrimination against all LGBT families ends — no matter where they live and whether or not their country or state recognizes same-sex marriage.

Please contact your elected officials soon so that we can build unprecedented support for LGBT immigrants’ rights!