NOTE: This is a revised piece from 2006, but it still fits!
Immigration Reform and Queer Equality - We Need Them NOW!
As a Mexican-American lesbian I have been watching with great interest the debates over immigrant rights as well as the ongoing struggle for fair and equal treatment by the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
Because of my place in both of these worlds, I am often privy firsthand to the intolerance and prejudice of some members of these groups against one another. From many in my Latino community I hear the arguments and the support for laws that continue to contribute to the denial of the LGBTQ community’s quest for equal rights. At the same time I hear many in the LGBTQ community expressing strong anti-immigrant sentiment as well as calling the undocumented law-breakers who deserve no consideration for citizenship.
It is a constant source of amazement to me to see how quickly each group embraces and actively contributes to the life span of the injustice from which the other suffers. All the while they are each bemoaning their own ill treatment at the hands of unjust laws in America.
These webs of prejudice have been carefully spun to keep the disenfranchised too entangled to see clearly the ways that they are being played against each other.
In addition to setting immigrants and the LGBTQ community against one another in order to inflame opinion and perpetuate the prejudice and continuation of inequitable treatment; there is an attempt to sway the opinion of the African-American community. Basically the African-American community is being encouraged to participate in activities that hurt other people’s quest for justice. There has been a deliberate courting of this community by anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ factions (these are often the same groups and individuals) to buy into rhetoric that paints immigrants as “stealing” black jobs and the LGBTQ community as undeserving of equality based on religious beliefs.
It seems we are supposed to believe that immigrant workers are only for the lowest jobs that no one else wants to do. Not only that, but it seems that now we’re supposed to believe that those are actually black people’s jobs? And we are supposed to believe that religious preferences supersede human worth and dignity, allowing LGBTQ individuals and their families to be denied equal rights.
It’s no wonder that I get confused. On the one hand, immigrants are being told that unless they are citizens they cannot have rights, while the LGBTQ community is being told that despite being citizens, they cannot have rights. Yet, each one continues to help keep the other down while the African-American community is encouraged to step on both groups, while itself continuing to be subjected to racism, education and economic disparities. And nativist whites, some of whom are themselves suffering from poverty, continue to beat the drums of intolerance as well.
What this gives us is a lot of people who are systemically discriminated against fighting each other for top rung on the ladder of oppression. Like crabs in a barrel we keep pulling one another down, doing the dirty work for a system whose power structure depends on our remaining divided and actively oppressing each other. At the same time 10% of the U.S.’s citizens own 70% of this country’s assets.
A couple of the biggest arguments that I hear from many LGBTQ, African-American and other community members around undocumented people concerns the Mexican economy, why won’t they speak English and why people come here without papers.
It’s true that the Mexican economy is in bad shape, and some of that can be directly attributed to the U.S. The maquiladoras, manufacturing plants in Mexico that sprang up in the sixties, many with U.S. owners, have seen a dramatic closing of operations resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of Mexican jobs. This happened in part because of their loss of duty-free status due to NAFTA. As Mexican workers began to organize around pay, benefits and the environmental impact of these plants there was a subsequent outsourcing of these plants to countries with easier labor and environmental laws like China, Brazil and Indonesia. NAFTA also led to the dumping of tons of cheap American corn into Mexico, forcing countless Mexican farmers whose cash crop was corn, out of business. NAFTA also allowed for American trucking companies to operate in Mexico, but the Mexican trucking industry was blocked from operating in the U.S. for over ten years.
The immigrant community absolutely understands and values the necessity of learning to speak English. And they are learning to speak English. The reality is that it can take five years or more to learn a foreign language and linguistically English is a difficult language to learn. By second generation the children all speak fluent English, by third generation English is usually the first language.
As for obtaining the necessary paperwork, people would if they could. Immigrating with the necessary documentation instead of spending thousands of hard won dollars to be smuggled into the country, or risking the lives of their families and themselves while trying to cross on their own would be much more preferable. But the fact is that current U.S. immigration policies make it almost impossible for most Mexicans and the residents of many other Latin American countries who are crossing the southern border to obtain the needed papers. Some may get temporary visas, but the track to permanent residency and citizenship is not an option for the vast majority. For those who do get the paperwork that puts them on the citizenship track, it can take them between10-25 years to reunite their families.
The majority of the Latino community and many other community’s with new immigrant populations continue for the most part to oppose equal rights for the LGBTQ community. Invariably it comes down to an issue of religion. Amazingly enough, many in these community’s agree with the anti-immigrant faction’s position on denying LGBTQ people equality. This despite the fact that their oppressors are also intent on preventing any form of humane immigration reform or opening a path to citizenship for the people already in the country. For most who are people of color, racism is a fact of life. And this racism is also perpetrated by those that this community stands with in denying rights to the LGBTQ community. Imagine being a person of color who is LGBTQ and then add being undocumented on top of that.
Contributing to all of this is the fact that people are scared and fear is the best tool to keep oppressed people opposing one another. And it’s working. The immigrant community and the LGBTQ community are among the sacrificial lambs, diverting people’s attention away from the real problems. Things like jobs that pay living wages, access to healthcare, quality education, safe and affordable housing, and food to eat.
The country is bogged down in outrageously expensive armed conflicts, with no real exit strategy, timetable or direction. At the same time the U.S. has been driven into unparalleled debt. The American middle class is swiftly disappearing; the disparity between the poor and the richest is a rapidly widening chasm of gargantuan proportions. Americans are hurting; jobs that paid good wages with benefits are vanishing. Oftentimes these jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries whose workers accept lower pay, no benefits and whose governments do not rigorously regulate worker and environmental protections. At the current rate, by 2015, the country will see over 15 million jobs outsourced.
We’re being told that the decline in American manufacturing is based upon a lessening demand for manufactured goods. But this is a fallacy as our consumer addicted nation continues to gobble up the now imported goods. We are quickly becoming a nation that will not be able to manufacture to meet our needs. And it’s not just manufacturing jobs that are leaving, software development, customer service, accounting and other financial services, office support, and product development to name but a few.
So why then are we content to fight each other? Why do we argue over who gets to do the worst jobs for the least pay? And why shouldn’t hard work in those least desirable jobs earn one a path to citizenship? Why do we continue to think it is okay for churches to tell our government which of its tax paying citizens can have equal rights? Why do we keep loving families from having equal rights to protect their families? Why have we lost sight of the value of human dignity and humanity? Why do we keep buying into the oppression of other human beings?
In addition to being human beings that want the same things; to protect and provide for our families, the immigrant and the LGBTQ community have some other things in common. If you are undocumented or LGBTQ you can be:
• fired from or refused a job
• refused the rental or sale of a home or be evicted
• forced to live in the shadows/closet
• targeted by legislators seeking to gain political power
• violently physically and verbally assaulted
• paying taxes with no rights
• denied access to a variety of government programs
• denied a legal marriage license
It is a time to stand in solidarity, to bring both of our communities out of the shadows. It is time to call for an end to the scapegoating and call for fair and just treatment regarding immigration reform, creating a path to citizenship for those who are here and providing full access to equal rights and responsibilities for the LGBTQ community. It is a time for our own accountability regarding the ways that our respective communities have contributed to the injustice of each other’s community. Now more than ever, we must come to understand that justice isn’t about “just us”, it is about justice for ALL!
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