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Was Gingrich’s ‘humane’ immigration policy LGBT inclusive?

Candidate called on to endorse moratorium on DOMA deportations

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Newt Gingrich, Republican Party, gay news, Washington Blade

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

LGBT immigration advocates are pushing Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich to put his money where his mouth is on the “humane” immigration policy he espoused that would allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.

Gingrich, the current GOP presidential front-runner, made the remarks Tuesday night near the end of the CNN Republican presidential debate on national security held in D.C.

The former U.S. House speaker said the GOP should embrace a policy allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the country if they’ve resided in the United States a long time.

“If you’ve been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we’re going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out,” Gingrich said.

The candidate later continued,Ā “I don’t see how the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century. And I’m prepared to take the heat for saying, ‘Let’s be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship but by finding a way to create legality so that they are not separated from their families.'”

MORE IN THE BLADE: WHITE HOUSE SHOULD PROTECT LGBT IMMIGRANTS

Gingrich — most likely unknowingly — hit on an issue that’s important to LGBT advocates because of the inequities in the immigration system affecting gay Americans seeking to stay together in the United States with same-sex partners who are foreign nationals.

Under current immigration code, gay Americans can’t sponsor their foreign partners for residency in the United States becauseĀ same-sex marriage isn’t legal in many places and becauseĀ the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits federal recognition of those unions.Ā Consequently, foreign nationals who are in committed relationships with gay Americans may have to leave the United States or face deportation.

Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality, called for Gingrich to follow up on his remarks by endorsing comprehensive immigration reform and family reunification legislation that has language for gay bi-national couples:

“The former Speaker’s comments on Tuesday highlight a growing truth: There are few Americans whose lives are not touched, in some way, by the millions of immigrants — both documented and undocumented — who call our country home. As Gingrich pointed out, the immigrant community includes our family members, friends, neighbors and co-workers.Ā  Of the 400,000 individuals forcibly removed from the United States last year, most had no criminal record and many have loved ones who are American citizens. Of course, some of those were also lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and were separated from spouses, partners and children. One of those is Jair Izquierdo, who was deported just weeks before Christmas last year and whose partner, Richard Dennis, continues to work for his safe return home.Ā  Given his past record on issues important to LGBT families, I worry that Gingrich’s comments were not intended to include families like Richard and Jair, but I also hope I am wrong.”

“Gingrich’s remarks last night, and the recent guidelines for discretion issued by the Obama Administration, underscore the need to be explicit that, in the United States, we include every family member – gay or straight – when we talk about keeping families together. It is past time for both parties to come together and pass comprehensive, inclusive immigration reform. Gingrich’s vision of a compassionate immigration policy mirrors the principles put forth by Senator Robert Menendez in his reform bill, and by Congressman Mike Honda in the Reuniting Families Act.Ā  We would welcome the former Speaker’s support in pressing for passage of both bills, which include all families and which would help bring couples like Richard and Jair back together again.”

MORE IN THE BLADE: BLUMENTHAL SEEKS TO AID LESBIAN BI-NATIONAL COUPLE

Lavi Soloway, founder of Stop the Deportations, said Gingrich should denounce DOMA, which enables the separation of bi-national gay couples, in addition to calling on President Obama to issue a moratorium on DOMA deportations:

ā€œGingrich clearly wanted the audience to believe that, if elected President, he would pursue immigration reform that keeps families together, rather than allow families to be torn apart. In a general sense, what Gingrich said reflects the bedrockĀ  principle of U.S. immigration law: family unification. However, those words are cold comfort coming from Mr. Gingrich, who has stood solidly against LGBT families throughout his political career. If Newt Gingrich really believes that we should fashion an inclusive immigration policy that protects all families, he should immediately denounce the Defense of Marriage Act which currently excludes more than 40,000 lesbian and gay binational couples from our existing immigration system. He should urge the President to put a moratorium on ā€œDOMA deportations.ā€

“But Mr. Gingrich will not do that because he not only helped lead passage of DOMA as Speaker of the House in 1996, he continues to actively oppose equality for LGBT families today. All candidates for public office, regardless of party, must address the humanitarian crisis faced by lesbian and gay binational couples because of DOMA and support concrete solutions for the protection of all families.ā€

 

Despite calls among LGBT advocates encouraging Gingrich to step up his pledge on a “humane” immigration policy, political observers are saying the candidate’s remarks on likely hurt him among GOP primary voters.

MORE IN THE BLADE: US BALKS AT ASYLUM FOR GAY SAUDI DIPLOMAT

In the debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pounced on Gingrich and called the candidate’s idea a form of “amnesty” that would bring more undocumented immigrants into the United States.

Romney lated added past programs in the country “have said that if people who come here illegally are going to get to stay illegally for the rest of their life, that’s going to only encourage more people to come here illegally.”

The Gingrich campaign couldn’t be reached to comment on the calls from LGBT advocates for an inclusive immigration policy.

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Puerto Rico

Two men charged with attacking trans Puerto Rican woman plead guilty to federal hate crimes charges

Alexa Negrón Luciano attacked with paintball gun before her murder

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(Bigstock photo)

Two men on Monday pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges in connection with attacking a transgender woman in Puerto Rico in 2020.

A Justice Department press release notes Jordany Laboy Garcia, Christian Rivera Otero and Anthony Lobos Ruiz “were out driving together” in Toa Baja, a municipality that is about 15 miles west of San Juan, early on Feb. 24, 2020, “when they saw” Alexa Negrón Luciano “standing under a tent near the side of the road.”

“The defendants recognized A.N.L. from social media posts concerning an incident that had occurred the day prior at a McDonald’s in Toa Baja,” reads the press release. “During that incident, A.N.L. had used a stall in the McDonald’s women’s restroom.”

“Upon recognizing A.N.L., Lobos-Ruiz used his iPhone to record a video of himself yelling, ‘la loca, la loca,’ (‘the crazy woman, the crazy woman’) as well as other disparaging and threatening comments to A.N.L. from inside the car,” it notes. “The defendants then decided to get a paintball gun to shoot A.N.L. and record another iPhone video. Within 30 minutes, they retrieved a paintball gun and returned to the location where they had last seen A.N.L., who was still at that location. Lobos-Ruiz then used his iPhone to record Laboy-Garcia shooting at A.N.L. multiple times with the paintball gun. After the assault ended, Lobos Ruiz shared the iPhone video recordings with others.”

Negrón was later killed in Toa Baja.

Laboy and Rivera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a hate crime and obstruction of justice. El Nuevo DĆ­a, a Puerto Rican newspaper, notes a federal judge sentenced Lobos to two years and nine months in prison after he pleaded guilty to hate crimes charges last November.

Laboy and Rivera are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 10.

They, along with Lobos, have not been charged with Negrón’s murder.

ā€œTo assault an innocent victim who posed no threat to the defendants for no other reason than her gender identity is reprehensible behavior that will not be tolerated,ā€ said U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico in the Justice Department’s press release. ā€œThe Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all people, regardless of their gender identity, to be free from hate-fueled violence. Our community must stand together against acts of violence motivated by hate for any group of people — we remain steadfast in our commitment to prosecute civil rights violations and keep our communities safe and free from fear.ā€

Pedro Julio Serrano, spokesperson for Puerto Rico Para Todes, a Puerto Rican LGBTQ rights group, on Tuesday welcomed the guilty pleas. Serrano also urged authorities to bring those who killed Negrón to justice. 

“The time for total justice for Alexa is now,” said Serrano in a press release. “Her murder was a hate crime. Nobody doubts this. They falsely accused her, persecuted her, hunted her, insulted her with transphobic epithets, uploaded onto social media a video of them accosting her and they killed her. There are already three individuals who will serve time in federal prison for attacking her in a hate crime. That’s some justice, but not complete.”Ā 

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Federal Government

Barbara Lee: PEPFAR is ‘more in peril’ than ever before

Congress has yet to reauthorize funding for Bush-era HIV/AIDS program

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U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) speaks about the future of PEPFAR at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference in D.C. on Sept. 22, 2023. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

California Congresswoman Barbara Lee on Sept. 22 said the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is “more in peril” now than at any point since its launch two decades ago.

“This program is reauthorized every five years, but it’s always on a bipartisan basis,” said Lee during a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference that took place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. “As we approach the benchmark of an AIDS-free generation by 2023, it is unfortunately more in peril now than ever before.”

Then-President George W. Bush in 2003 signed legislation that created PEPFAR.

Lee noted PEPFAR as of 2020 has provided nearly $100 billion in “cumulative funding for HIV and AIDS treatment, prevention and research.” She said PEPFAR is the largest global funding program for a single disease outside of COVID-19.

New PEPFAR strategy includes ‘targeted programming’ for marginalized groups

The panel took place amid the continued push for Congress to reauthorize PEPFAR for another five years. The federal government will shut down on Oct. 1 if Congress does not pass an appropriations bill.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken last December at a World AIDS Day event in D.C. acknowledged HIV/AIDS continues to disproportionately impact LGBTQ and intersex people and other marginalized groups. A new PEPFAR strategy the Biden-Harris administration announced that seeks to “fill those gaps” over the next five years includes the following points:

• Targeted programming to help reduce inequalities among LGBTQ and intersex people, women and girls and other marginalized groups

• Partnerships with local organizations to help reach ā€œhard-to-reachā€ communities.

• Economic development and increased access to financial markets to allow countries to manufacture their own antiretroviral drugs, tests and personal protective gear to give them ā€œthe capacity to meet their own challenges so that they’re not dependent on anyone else.ā€

The Family Research Council Action in an email to supporters urged them to tell Congress to “stop Biden from hijacking PEPFAR to promote its radical social policies overseas.” Family Watch International has said PEPFAR “has been hijacked to advance a radical sexual agenda.”

“Please sign the petition to tell the U.S. Congress to ensure that no U.S. funds go to organizations that promote abortion, LGBT ideology, or ‘comprehensive sexuality education,'” said the group in an email to its supporters. 

A group of lawmakers and religious leaders from Kenya and other African countries inĀ a letter they wrote to members of Congress in JuneĀ said PEPFAR, in their view, no longer serves its original purposes of fighting HIV/AIDS because it champions homosexuality and abortion.

ā€œWe wrote that letter to the U.S. Congress not to stop PEPFAR funding to Kenya, but to demand the initiative to revert to its original mission without conditioning it to also supporting LGBTQ as human rights,ā€ it reads.

Biden in 2021 signed a memo that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of his administration’s overall foreign policy.

American officials earlier this year postponed a meeting on PEPFAR’s work in Uganda in order to assess the potential impact the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act will have on it. The law, which Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed on May 29, contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.”

Biden in his U.N. General Assembly speech last weekĀ notedĀ LGBTQ and intersex rights and highlighted PEPFAR. Family Watch International in its email to supporters included a link to the letter from the African lawmakers and religious leaders.Ā Ā 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated both the FRC and Family Watch International as anti-LGBTQ hate groups.

“[PEPFAR is] not about abortions,” said Lee.

HIV/AIDS activists protest inside house speaker kevin mccarthy (r-calif.)’s office in d.c. on sept. 11, 2023. (washington blade video by michael k. lavers)

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power during the panel referenced Bush’s recent op-ed in the Washington Post that urged lawmakers to reauthorize PEPFAR.

“The way he put it is no program is more pro-life [than] one that has saved more than 25 million lives,” said Power.

Power referenced the “manufactured controversy that is making it difficult to get this reauthorization.” U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Dr. John Knengasong said a failure to reauthorize PEPFAR would weaken “our own foreign policy and diplomacy.”

“Once again the United States will be missing in action,” stressed Lee.

Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary for Legislation Melanie Egorin and Kenny Kamson, a Nigerian HIV/AIDS activist, also spoke on the panel that MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart moderated.Ā 

From left: U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Dr. John Nkengasong and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power discuss the future of PEPFAR at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in D.C. on Sept. 22, 2023. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
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The White House

Biden, Harris, deliver remarks for White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention

Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf among those who spoke

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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris listen as U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) addresses an audience in the Rose Garden including federal, state and local officials, survivors and family members, and gun violence prevention advocates on Sept. 22, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Brandon Wolf)

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) addressed an audience from the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday to honor the establishment of a first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

In a press release Thursday announcing the move, the administration said its aim is to implement and expand the provisions of last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act along with those contained in the president’s executive orders targeting issues of gun violence.

Additionally, Biden explained in his remarks, the office will coordinate more support for survivors, families and communities, including mental health services and financial aid; identify new avenues for executive action; and “expand our coalition of partners in states and cities across America” given the need for legislative solutions on the local and state level.

Harris, who will oversee the office, pledged to “use the full power of the federal government to strengthen the coalition of survivors and advocates and students and teachers and elected leaders to save lives and fight for the right of all people to be safe from fear and to be able to live a life where they understand that they are supported in that desire and that right.”

The vice president noted her close experiences with the devastating consequences of gun violence in her work as a federal prosecutor, San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and in her current role.

Biden’s comments also included highlights of his administration’s accomplishments combatting gun violence and a call to action for Congress to do more. “It’s time again to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines,” he told lawmakers.

The president also credited the the work of advocates including those who were gathered at the White House on Friday: “all of you here today, all across the country, survivors, families, advocates — especially young people who demand our nation do better to protect all; who protested, organized, voted, and ran for office, and, yes, marched for their lives.”

Taking the stage before introducing Biden, Frost noted that “Right before I was elected to Congress, I served as the national organizing director for March for Our Lives, a movement that inspired young people across the nation to demand safe communities.”

“The president understands that this issue especially for young people, especially for marginalized communities, is a matter of survival,” the congressman said. And the formation of this office, “comes from Pulse to Parkland,” he said, adding, “we fight because we love.”

Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, which was America’s second deadliest mass shooting and the deadliest against the LGBTQ community, shared a comment with the Washington Blade after Friday’s ceremony:

ā€œSeven years ago, when my best friends and 47 others were murdered at our safe place — Pulse Nightclub — we promised to honor them with action. This is what that looks like. This deep investment in the fight to end gun violence matters, and I cannot wait to see Vice President Harris lead these efforts. We can blaze the path toward a future free of gun violence. And today marked an important step in that direction.ā€

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