I did immigration law for awhile and tried to help gay couples who couldn't petition for each other. Very sad situation - it really sucked. A Mexican friend of mine is in this same position - and he just had to return to Mexico becasue his father is ill. His chances of getting back here to live with his boyfriend again? Pretyy much zilch.
jessica
>
>Among other rights that civil marriage provides that civil unions don't:
>
>--right to take leave to care for a spouse;
>--right to sponsor a spouse for immigration;
>--right to make medical decisions on behalf of your spouse;
>--right to SS death benefits;
>--right assuming your deceased spouse's pension;
>--right to confidential conversations (spouses don't have to
> testify against each other);
>--and according to GAO study done in '97, over 1000 more rights that
> federal law bestows on married couples.
>
>I'm just cribbing from a list at
>http://www.actionwisconsin.org/civilmarriage/whymarriage.html .
>There's other stuff on civil marriage vs. civil unions and domestic
>partnerships at http://www.hrc.org, but naviagating their site
>is a pain.
>
>
>I wasn't aware of this stuff until just recently. From where I sit,
>civil unions and domestic partnerships are completely inferior to
>civil marriage in terms of benefits offered. If your partner gets
>gastly ill and needs care, you aren't covered under the Family Leave
>Act. If you love someone and want to bring them into the country,
>forget about it (didn't someone post a horrific, heartbreaking
>story of a gay American/Palestinian couple here some time back?)
>Is your partner in the ICU? Hell, they probably won't even let
>you *IN* if the family takes a dim view of your relationship, let
>alone make decisions. Etc.
>
>This one should be a no-brainer. Gay couples should have civil
>marriage rights.
>
>Curtiss
>
>
>
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