This article contrasts talk surrounding queer marriage and migration with the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people who have petitioned for status in the United States based on their relationships. I find that people use the concept of equality or being “the same” to dismiss testimonies of harm, and to hold individuals instead of systems and laws responsible for harms when they are acknowledged. I place this rhetoric in the context of US family immigration as a colonial and racial project. Through a mixed methods analysis, the article draws a link between the interactions queer and trans people are having online, their personal and couple narratives, and the colonial history and harm endemic to this often idealized immigration pathway.
AcostaK. Queer marriages and US immigration policy. In: NRumensACervantes-Carson (eds) Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging. New York, NY: Rodopi, 2007, pp. 21–40.
2.
AdurSM. In pursuit of love: “Safe passages,” migration and queer South Asians in the US. Curr Sociol2018; 66(2): 320–334.
3.
BaumleAKComptonDLR. Love wins?Contexts2017; 16(1): 30–35.
4.
BrayI. Fiancé & Marriage Visas: A Couple’s Guide to US Immigration. 10th ed.Berkeley: Nolo, 2019.
5.
BeauchampT. Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and US Surveillance Practices. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.
6.
BrandzelA. Against Citizenship: The Violence of the Normative.Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2019.
7.
CanadayM. The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
8.
CarroJ. From constitutional psychopathic inferiority to AIDS: What is in the future for homosexual aliens?Yale L Pol Rev1989; 7(1): 201–228.
9.
CarronA. Marriage-based immigration for same-sex couples after DOMA: Lingering problems of proof and prejudice. Northwest Univ L Rev2015; 109(4): 1021–1052.
10.
ChávezK. Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities. Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
11.
ChauvinSRobledoMSKorenTIllidgeJ. Class, mobility and inequality in the lives of same-sex couples with mixed legal statuses. J Ethnic Migration Stud2021; 47(2): 430–446.
12.
ConradR (ed). Against Equality: Queer Revolution, Not Mere Inclusion. Oakland: AK Press, 2014.
13.
Cook-MartínDFitzGeraldD. Liberalism and the limits of inclusion: Race and immigration law in the Americas, 1850–2000. J Interdiscip Hist2010; XLI(I): 7–25.
14.
DecenaC. Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire Among Dominican Immigrant Men. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
15.
DhoestA. Learning to be gay: LGBTQ forced migrant identities and narratives in Belgium. J Ethnic Migration Stud2019; 45(7): 1075–1089.
16.
EnriquezL. Of Love and Papers: How Immigration Policy Affects Romance and Family. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020.
17.
EspínO. Women Crossing Boundaries: A Psychology of Immigration and Transformations of Sexuality. New York, NY: Routledge, 1999.
18.
EyerK. “The But-For Theory of Anti-discrimination law.” Virgina Law Review. forthcoming, 2021.
19.
FraderaJ. The Imperial Nation: Citizen Subjects in the British, French, Spanish, and American Empires. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
20.
GilbertDTharNHM. Moving from the shadows: Law and SOGIE rights in Myanmar’s democratic transition. Aust J Asian L2019; 20(1): 187–195.
21.
GlennEN. Settler colonialism as structure. Sociol Race Ethn2015; 1(1): 52–72.
22.
JamesJ. Who does America want?Georgetown Immigration L J2021; 35: 325–347.
23.
JonesADeFilippisJYarboroughM (eds). After Marriage Equality: The Unfinished Queer Agenda. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018.
24.
KibriaN. #Families belong together: Facts and fictions of race and family in U.S. immigration policy. Sociol Forum2019; 34(4): 809–817.
25.
KibriaNO’LearyMBowmanC. The good immigrant worker: 2013 US Senate Bill 744, color-blind nativism and the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform. Int Migration Integration2018; 19(1): 1–13.
26.
LeckeyR (ed). After Legal Equality: Family, Sex, Kinship. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015.
27.
LeeEOJ. Tracing the coloniality of queer and trans migrations: Resituating heterocisnormative violence in the Global South and encounters with migrant visa ineligibility in Canada. Refuge2018; 34(1): 60–74.
28.
LewisR. Lesbians under surveillance: Same-sex immigration reform, gay rights, and the problem of queer liberalism. Social Justice2010; 37(1): 90–106.
29.
LewisRA. "Gay? Prove it": The politics of queer anti-deportation activism. Sexualities2014; 17(8): 958–975.
30.
LongoGM. Keeping it in “the family”: How gender norms shape U.S. marriage migration politics. Gend Soc2018; 32(4): 469–492.
31.
LuibhéidE. Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
32.
LuibhéidEChávezK. Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2020.
MeyersR. Conducting Psychological Assessments for U.S. Immigration Cases. New York, NY: Springer, 2020.
35.
McGuirkS. (In)credible subjects: NGOs, attorneys, and permissible LGBT asylum seeker identities. PoLAR2018; 41(S1): 4–18.
36.
NagelJ. Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003.
37.
PuhlE. Family-based Petitions for LGBTQ Couples. San Francisco: Immigrant Legal Resource Center, 2020.
38.
QuigleyJ. Teaching reflection: Thinking with Paulo Freire about Jeff Sessions and the Bible. J Feminist Stud Religion2020; 36(1): 171–173.
39.
SaitoNT. Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists. New York, NY: NYU Press, 2020.
40.
SpadeD. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of the Law. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.
41.
TschalaerM. Between queer liberalisms and Muslim masculinities: LGBTQI+ Muslim asylum assessment in Germany. Ethnic Racial Stud2020; 43(7): 1265–1283.
42.
TomchinO. Bodies and bureaucracy: Legal sex classification and marriage-based immigration for trans* people. Calif L Rev2013; 101: 813–862.
43.
TurnerJEspinozaMV. The affective and intimate life of the family migration visa: Knowing, feeling and encountering the heteronormative state. Geopolitics2019; 26(2): 357–377.
44.
VelezC. The continued marginalization of people living with HIV/AIDS in US immigration law. CUNY L Rev2013; 16(2): 221–242.
45.
WadhiaS. Darkside discretion in immigration cases. Administrative L Rev2020; 72(3): 367–416.
46.
WadhiaS. Banned: Immigration Enforcement in the Time of Trump. New York, NY: NYU Press, 2019.
47.
WhiteheadJC. The Nuptial Deal: Same-Sex Marriage and Neoliberal Governance. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011.
48.
WilkersonI. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. New York, NY: Random House, 2020.
49.
YengS. The Biopolitics of Race: State Racism and US Immigration. New York, NY: Lexington, 2014.
50.
YueA. Same-sex migration in Australia: From interdependency to intimacy. GLQ2008; 14(2–3): 239–262.
51.
KashyapMB. Unsettling immigration laws: Settler colonialism and the U.S. immigration legal system. Fordham Urban Law Journal2019; 46(3): 548–578.
52.
LeeC. Fictive Kinship: Family Reunification and the Meaning of Race and Nation in American Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2013.
53.
ArvinMTuckEMorrillA. Decolonizing feminism: Challenging connections between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy. Feminist Formations2013; 25(1): 8–34.
