US Immigration Recognises Transgender Marriage
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memorandum last week that updates the Adjudicator’s Field Manual, a guide binding all agency staff overseeing immigration procedures. It spells out policy around immigration documents issued and marriage benefits given to transgender individuals. The interim memo, released for comment from stakeholders, is in effect until further notice from USCIS.
The directive is welcome news for the transgender community and its allies. USCIS will now issue immigration documents that reflect an individual’s gender identity, so long as the individual presents “an amended birth certificate, passport, or court order recognizing their new gender; or medical certification of the change in gender from a licensed physician.” The memo points out that these criteria are “based on standards and recommendations of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health who are recognized as the authority in this field by the American Medical Association.”
USCIS will also approve green-card petitions by American citizens or permanent residents for their spouses if a petitioner establishes that the transgender individual has legally changed their gender and subsequently married an individual of the other gender; that the marriage is recognized as a heterosexual marriage under the law where the union took place; and that the law where the marriage took place does not bar unions between transgender individuals and persons of the other gender.
The directive explicitly says that gender-reassignment surgery “is not required in order for USCIS to approve” petitions “unless the law of the place of marriage clearly requires sex reassignment surgery in order to accomplish a change in legal gender.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and Immigration Equality, advocates for transgender rights, applauded the development. The organizations have been working in tandem to advance these urgently needed policies, part of a comprehensive agenda for the fair treatment of transgender immigrants.
“Today’s announcement is another example of the Obama Administration’s long-term commitment to equality,” NCTE Policy Counsel Harper Jean Tobin said Friday. “These revisions mean that trans people and their families can obtain accurate identification while maintaining their privacy. It’ll also reduce bureaucratic delays, intrusive questions, and wrongful denials of immigration benefits.”
“This Guidance is an important step forward for transgender immigrants and their families,” added Victoria Neilson, Legal Director for Immigration Equality. “It brings USCIS in line with DOS [the Department of State] in its guidance for updating gender markers on identity documents — no longer requiring any specific surgery, but instead allowing a doctor to certify the individual’s gender.” She added, “The memo affirms existing law and precedents, and recognizes that if a marriage is considered valid and opposite sex under state law, it is valid for immigration purposes.”
This is certainly a step in the right direction, and the administration should be given credit for taking this move, but it leaves gay binational married couples, who are not afforded immigration benefits because of the Defense of Marriage (DOMA), out in the cold. Some of these couples also include a spouse who is transgender.
Tobin acknowledges the long path ahead: “While these two revisions aid some trans immigrants and their U.S. citizen spouses, and vice-versa, the revisions only highlight the need to eliminate the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act.”
This article is kindly reproduced from Trans Girls
Hosiery Choices !!
Like so many girls I simply adore sheer hosiery. In fact I can’t get enough of it and to me I am not properly dressed until I have some silky soft nylons on my legs. But there always comes a dilemma. Should it be tights (yes I am British so pantyhose just doesn’t sound right to me) or should it be stockings or even hold ups (not thigh highs please….)?
My preference all round it must be said is for tights – usually nude or barely black/nearly black, but sometimes stockings just seem to be the right choice for the occasion – say a quiet night in with my lovely girlfriend. But for day to day wearing tights are the obvious choice for me. They are comfortable and they are sheer and most importantly they don’t fall down. So with that in mind I have created a poll….
LGBT? Trans What?
I was wondering the other day just how confusing all the different Trans categories are, and also whether in fact Trans (with all its categories) needs to, or should be included with LGBT?
Lets just have a look at LGBT to start with. Firstly if you are L then by definition you are a Lesbian which means that you are a female attracted to females; similarly if you are G in the equation then you are a gay male who is attracted to men; and obviously if you are B you are attracted to both male and female and also very greedy 🙂 But T?? T for transgender is not a sexuality. It is a gender and therefore in my opinion the correct accronym for T should be MFT – in other words Male or Female or Trans. Then once that is ascertained you can then go on to look at the sexuality issue if you must – which then would be simply LGB !!
Now to those pesky Trans pigeon holes. Well I am transgendered so I have to fit in somewhere don’t I? I could be a crossdresser or a transvestite, or I could be a tgirl or t-girl or gurl or undergo transition and be transsexual. There are loads more inbetween – things such as genderqueer and pansexual and girlfag and guydyke. But why so many? People by their very nature are a diverse bunch and if you follow the thought behind labelling Trans people then you surely must apply that to cisgender people too. Therefore surely if anyone slightly deviates from the current accepted cisgender dress code then they must cease to fall into that category and become trans? Its not logical but if you think about it a woman in a pair of jeans would be crossdressing; a man in a sarong must be crossdressing too and therefore they should appear on the trans scale – but they don’t. Hmmmm