If "immigration equality" - the ability for same-sex (gay or lesbian) couples to have the same immigration privileges as straight couples - is important to you, then the article at this link about the Reform Immigration for America group not supporting "immigration equality" should be your first and last stop for the day. They aren't on your side. Please go read it now, and for the rest of you please send it to anyone who's LGBT and who wants to know who supports them and who doesn't.

The author Prerna Lal writes about her attendance at a Four Freedoms Fund blogger briefing in New York City:

As usual, I was the only undocumented person in the room, let alone the only undocumented sexual and gender minority immigrant -- invited out of tokenism. I was specifically told by Bil Bilerico, of the LGBTQ blog The Bilerco Project, that I was invited as a blogger and "we cannot put you on any panels because other bloggers would be like, why does SHE get to talk?" Read the first sentence of this paragraph again. So we all pretended to conveniently forget about the presence of one of the founders and leaders of DreamActivist -- a national movement that has queer immigrant youth of color in leadership roles in disproportionate numbers, and which has tackled intersectional oppressions and built bridges between communities.

...Following a dismal and uninspiring showing from Frank Sharry of America's Voice, a few words from Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum was enough to obliterate any bridges under construction.

To his credit, Ali Noorani was brave to show up to weather the storm of anger and have a conversation that should have happened long ago. He admitted that there were no LGBT organizations on the Reform Immigration for America management team, allegedly to appease conservative religious organizations -- the same community that queer advocates have been fighting against to gain equal rights for so long. Noorani also went out on a limb to say that the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) was not a winning strategy for the campaign to adopt, which made little sense given that UAFA has more cosponsors than even the popular DREAM Act and the tanked Gutierrez CIRASAP bill.

But Noorani failed dismally when he ranked oppressions, especially in the case of the Trail of DREAM students: "they won't be detained for being gay, they would be detained for being undocumented." This blatantly ignorant statement demonstrates a complete and utter failure at understanding intersectional oppression: Felipe is still undocumented because Juan is queer male and they are in a same-sex relationship -- these multi-dimensional identities are so intrinsically linked that it is hard to elevate one over the other, let alone rank them.