Take Action for Immigration Reform

Despite Washington D.C.’s current dysfunction and the government shutdown, immigration reform remains an important goal that deserves the full attention of our elected representatives.

In an effort to re-focus the nation’s attention on the need for reform, advocates of comprehensive immigration reform have organized more than 100 local community events around the country on Saturday, October 5, that will focus on passing legislation addressing immigration reform. The following Tuesday, October 8, there will be a rally and concert in Washington, D.C. Please go to http://octoberimmigration.org/ to learn more about each event.

Lambda Legal is proud to be a member of a coalition of civil rights groups promoting immigration reform because it is an LGBT/HIV civil rights issue and it is important for our country. It will provide those of us who are undocumented with vital protections that citizens and documented residents simply take for granted.

A recent study by the Williams Institute reported that of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, there are an estimated 267,000 undocumented LGBT immigrants living in the United States.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.” As a community fighting for our civil rights—the “true peace”—the community of LGBT American citizens stands shoulder to shoulder with our LGBT undocumented brothers and sisters and demands justice in the form immigration reform. 

Join us in taking action by continuing to deepen the connections between the LGBT civil rights movement with the immigration rights movement to achieve the fairness under the law we all seek. We truly should aspire to be a rainbow coalition. Just like support for LGBT civil rights, the support for immigration reform is broad and cuts across gender, race and political ideology.

Learn more about why LGBT equality is at the heart of immigration reform. 

Photo: Octoberimmigration.org