Immigration

[Leigh]

The US immigration agency doesn't recognize marriages involving transgender people--so Donita Ganzon is taking it to court.
From: Mother Jones
By Lisa Katayama
May 25, 2005

   Last June, Donita Ganzon and Jiffy Javellana showed up at the Los Angeles district office of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for what they thought would be a routine interview. Though she was born in the Philippines, Ganzon, a 58-year-old nurse, is a US citizen. Javellana, her husband of three years, is a 28-year-old Filipino immigrant. Having lived happily with his wife in the US for several years, Javellana expected to come away from the interview with a green card in place of his temporary work visa.

Instead, his application for permanent residency was denied, and he now faces deportation.

What happened? As Ganzon tells it, during the interview she casually mentioned to an immigration officer that she'd had a sex change operation years before...  [Read More]

[beth_finallyme]

I know these things come down from the administration and I expect that. Why couldn't the INS agent working with them just ignore her comments? Apparently her papers were in order and no one would have known. I have a hard time understanding how a human being could be so cold. Excused as fear of losing their job? No way. If the laws are unjust, the people need to work around them till they are changed. Example: any oral sex is illegal in utah, even between married hetero couples, and get this inserting a finger anywhere is illegal also. And all these acts are called the same crime "sodomy".

[Terri-Gene]

A good case for states rights as well as T marriages, and if marriage is being legally defined as between a Man and a Woman, that what the hell is legal documentaion to the effect that a T who has surgery worth?  A person who is legally of a specific gender/sex legally isn't?  Important case to win on many levels?

Your pretty up on things like this Leigh Ann?  Is there a legitimate fund raiser collecting money specifically to help cover legal costs in this battle?  They got one, I'm in for all the squeeze the budget can take, can't do nothing else as this case affects not only  T's and former same sex couples but also lays groundwork on legal status of sex change in total..

[Leigh]

 This is this exact reason that everyone should support same sex marriages.  No matter whom you choose to love you can have a legal marriage.

If you were married prior to surgery you are still legally married.  If you choose to marry afterwards it is still legal if you use the XX as a qualifier.

It makesZERO difference  even if all your paperwork has been changed and someone contests a marriage to a male.

I fault the woman for bring up a subject that had no reason to be discussed.    What possessed her to reveal information that the official had no need to know?

If and when laws are passed prohibiting discrimination on gender identity it will be easier to fight issues such as this.

Terri, I have no idea if there is an organized effort to support her.  If there was I am sure it would be the ACLU or GLAAD.

[Terri-Gene]

I agree with you that she used extreamly bad judgement in this affair LeighAnn, but now that the can of worms is open, it has to be addressed.  If such a case isn't properly fought, due to lack of funds or support, it's bad news for everybody, so now, regardless of how anyone feels about how it happened, there is no choice but to take it personal.  I was hoping you had some prior information, but if not, then I'll do a little searching myself and if I find something I'll post a link.  This would be a good excercise for any others who are concerned for thier future and the future of others, after all, it is so small a thing to do to support what you believe in and beats the hell out of simply whining about why doesn't someone do something about our rights.

As I have heard you say in the past, if you are not a part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.

And I didn't fail to notice after 4 days or so now how little interest there is in the subject or the case.  But then some of us have grown to expect that in these type of communities.

TG

[Terri-Gene]

 "Why couldn't the INS agent working with them just ignore her comments?"

Administration or no administraition, existing law is existing law and any agent of the law is required to report any irregularity, despite personal feelings.  Things were the same under the Clinton Admin.  Notice that much attention was directed at the Bush Admin and it's part in this. The Defence of Marrage Act was inacted in 1996.  Who's administration was it then?  but then I guess people see what they want.  When you pick and choose which laws to obey or ignore, things get very unnice really quick, as it leads to Anarchy.  I don't want to go into the arguments on this as they are worthless in relation to changing anything.

Getting upset over lawful actions does nothing and discussing whats fair or not leads nowhere.  Try doing some searching such as I suggested  in previous response and see if there is anything you can get involved in.  Do your Part to help and do something useful and meaningful.

TG

[Terri-Gene]

On going back to the article in question, I noticed there ws an email address to the Editors of the article and thought this might be a good place to start and have requested information pertaining to legal funding of not only this case but the others mentioned in the article.  The email address is in a box at the bottom of the article.  It is:  backtalk@motherjones.com
A copy of my own letter below:

From: Terri Gene Stovall  To: backtalk@motherjones.com
Subject: Backtalk: Sex and the Citizen

I am contacting you seeking information about the legal case of Donita Ganzon and Jiffy Javellana concerning Government interpetation of same sex marrage and immagration status.

I would wish to inquire about funding for this case and if there is any need for financial help.  If so, is there an authorized organized fund raiser to collect money that will be explicitly used to help the defense of this case.

Any information about legitimate fund raisers for this or any of the other cases mentioned in the article would be appreciated.

Thank you for any cooperation and/or help
Ms. Terri Gene Stovall

I did not find or at least notice anything specific about this on ACLU.COM, but I did find an interesting link there which is same sex specific;
http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=18250&c=23

At the bottom of this article is a link to more specific information on this and it would behove all persons here to at least follow the link and assist as they can.

TG