User Profile

My name is Nadine and I am one of over 50 riders on the Marriage Equality Express. We are travelling by bus from Oakland to Washington, DC to spread the word about the importance of marriage equality. We will be stopping in 11 cities over 8 days from October 4th-11th. They include Sacramento, Reno, Laramie, Cheyenne, Denver, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Akron, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC. Click here for the detailed schedule.

There are 1,138 federal rights and protections that come with civil marriage that are not available to same-sex couples, not even those who are legally married in Massachusetts. Families suffer because of this inequity.

Married couples have the right to hospital visitation when one partner is hospitalized. Married workers are legally entitled to unpaid leave from their jobs to care for an ill spouse. A heterosexual binational couple can marry, allowing the American citizen to sponsor his or her opposite-sex spouse to immigrate. Married couples have a legal right to live together in nursing homes. Laws protect married seniors from being forced to sell their homes to pay high nursing home bills. Social security survivor benefits are only available to married couples and most pension plans pay survivor benefits only to a legal spouse of the participant. And the list goes on and on.

My personal reason for going on the bus is that I am in a binational relationship. I want to marry the love of my life, but doing so could jeopardize her visa status. Unfortunately, I do not have the same rights as heterosexual Americans who can sponsor their spouses for immigration through marriage. Our only shot at staying together might be to move to Canada where same-sex marriage is recognized and immigration for same-sex couples is treated the same as immigration for opposite-couples. I hope to bring awareness to the plight of binational same-sex couples like us by sharing my story. You can read more about my story and about the other riders here

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