The premise of the “Grounded” story line is Superman walking across America and his interactions with members of the public.  His encounters with people portray him in a god like way not exactly talking down to people, not exactly being their equal but having a snooty nose up look on his face.  In issue 700 Superman encountered a woman who gave him less than favourable feedback so is this walk to justify to himself that he knows better than humans, is he really more wiser than them?  It certainly seems like it.

He won’t explain to the public why he is walking across the country, he gives out advice to the “common folk” in a short but concise way.  He becomes the savior of a woman about to jump off a building and it seems in this part of the story line that human’s would only “talk” rather than to “listen” to her help resolve her difficulties.  Are human’s, in particular the emergency services, like this today?  Is this what JMS thinks?  Maybe it is the habit of some to “tell people how to fix their lives”, everyone has an opinion, but I feel this was a poor reflection on the forces.

In a later encounter with someone on the street Superman tells a story and the person doesn’t really grasp the meaning of it.  It seems like Superman is feeling that these people are actually peasants and uneducated or that is how people are portrayed.

There is a one way interaction in the story where Superman is impacting humans but not vice versa.  Is Superman all wise that he cannot learn anything from us on this journey of his?  Actually the story lead me to dislike Superman more, I am hoping the story develops that Superman does encounter someone that he can learn from, what a lonely existence he surely has if this cannot be the case.

I did think, while reading this, the way Dr Who is written, where the Doctor thinks that the human race is fabulous and exciting which is why he considers it his “other home”, I think that program gives us more hope than this Superman story did.

The story did make me think which was its main attraction to me, I liked that it wasn’t the regular fighting strange creatures type of scenario.  I didn’t care much for the cover but thought the inner artwork was brilliant.

About The Film

LOVE EXILED chronicles the stories of four same-sex couples who immigrated to Canada where their relationships are fully recognized. Their dreams of returning home are still in the distant future. Until then, they live their love in exile.

Starring: Roger Chin, Carl Meadows, Donald Lim, Steven Rowe, Michael Smith, Paul Hopzapfel, Terry Frost, Kenzie Frost, Catherine Frost, Richard Dalton, Luis Grisales, Jim VanDeventer, Meg Andronowska

Screenplay by: Jim VanDeventer

Directed by: Jim VanDeventer
Produced by: Roger Chin

Release Date and Details

Saturday 21st August 2010 at 18:30
Buy a Ticket here part of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival

It is possible that the film will be shown at other Festivals so keep an eye on the official website, below, for further news.

On The Web

Find out more information on the film on the web here

• Picturesque Pictures (Official Website)
• Facebook Page
• YouTube Trailer

Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

I feel kind of let down with this issue, probably because I don’t follow the story line.  This issue seems to re-write the origin of Wonder Woman with her home being attacked by an, as yet, unknown evil nasty person, Diana’s mother killed and guardian’s rush Diana into hiding.  We know those Guardian’s have trained Diana to be Wonder Woman during the years and the issue starts off among the rubble of her city with someone showing her what happened when it was destroyed.  There is some/little character development but I expect JMS will get into this as the story progresses, like the little flashbacks into her past and how she was bought up and trained.  I suspect the overall purpose of the issue is to create some mystery for Diana to resolve and draw readers into wanting to see what happens next (and buy more issues).

The artwork is pretty good, very clean and atmospheric.  The story line, doesn’t really grab my attention enough to buy further issues, probably not JMS’s best work but I would certainly spend the time reading further issues should one drop in my hands for free.

The first one I have been waiting for a little while is Turf #2, the series written by Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards.  I bought the first issue, reviewed here, on impulse because I never knew that Jonathan was going to write a comic book.  I really enjoyed it, a mish-mash of 19th Century New York, Vampires and Aliens and I am looking forward to getting into issue 2.  However, the first thing that struck me about the book is that a vampire character looks very similar to Jonathan, as my picture left demonstrates, what do you think?

The next comic of note this week is Wonder Woman #600.  I don’t usually follow Wonder Woman but I did buy it because J Michael Straczynski will now write it.  JMS’s work is always incredible but will this tempt me to buy this comic on a regular basis?  We’ll see.  This issue did have the common theme of a few small stories like other DC anniversary issues, which I do find a little bit annoying, the JMS “Prologue” was only 9 pages long.  It did have an introduction by Lynda Carter, which was fab.  I have to say that costume “updates” have not usually gone down well with fans and I haven’t seen too many positive comments on this to date…they may have to change it back.  The costume update certainly generated some publicity for the comic, controversial or not, and even the BBC ran an article on it.

The first thing that really hit me when working in a full time job in Canada was the lack of annual leave/vacation days.  Having been used to the number of days being upper 30′s and more moving here has been a great shock to my system with only 15 days a year!!  Yes, you heard me right, only 15 days!!  That is considered to be very generous too…even though my reaction was….is that it???

Firstly not having any vacation in the first year is totally ridiculous, everyone needs a break from the office, why discriminate against those who have just joined the organization?  10 to 15 days is also ridiculous too, you cannot possibly take just one day off to de-stress because that eats up into at least 10% of your allowance.  I have certainly seen staff take more sick leave than in the UK and lack of paid vacation is likely one reason for it.

Paid annual leave entitlement tends to vary across Canada but being in British Columbia I looked up the minimum requirements set out in legislation here.  In the first year of employment a company doesn’t need to give you any annual leave at all.  In the second year of employment the legal minimum is 10 days.  After 5 years of being with the same company you are then entitled to an additional 5 days.  This is detailed on the Labour Canada website.  I have noticed also that in Canada you build up your annual leave, for example you get 1 day for every 1 month worked, so when can you take your first 2 weeks annual leave?

When you compare the equivalent Labour Canada website to the UK version at DirectGov you can see that the Canada site is a mess.  The UK Governments site is structured well, it is easy to find the information, they use Plain English, and no long unnecessary paragraphs of verbal crap.

In the UK, if you are a full time employee, it is law that you receive 5.6 weeks annual leave (equivalent to 28 days) in your first year.  You obviously can’t take your annual leave whenever you want and need approval from line management to do so and give appropriate notice but in the first two years of employment in the UK you would have got 56 days annual leave, in Canada you would have only got 10!  10 days in 2 years is not work-life balance, it is slave labour.  It has been proved time and time again in the UK that increases in annual leave does not harm the economy and in fact can only benefit the company as staff are more productive after a break, read this interesting press statement about change in legislation that the TUC pressed for.

If your company is generous in Canada then they might offer you flexi-time, close the company during holidays, give you 15 days off and other benefits but not everyone is generous, they will just give employees what is legislatively required.  There definitely needs to be a change in law to ensure employees get a better deal.  Just because Canada is a neighbour to the USA doesn’t mean it has to copy everything it does.

I have to admit I did feel a bit better when I saw that loads of other people were denied a vote from within the UK because polling stations couldn’t cope with the numbers, see FAQ on the BBC’s website.  They seem to be in a bit of a pickle and there is a petition to mend the voting system here.  At least I am not alone in all this mess!

Not quite sure what to make of the results of the election, it would certainly be interesting to see the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats form a coalition, since they have opposing views on many subjects I wonder how they would deal with that?  Would it be good for the country for them each side to be challenged by a different point of view? I might be more pleased about a Labour and Conservative Coalition but really I would be pleased if Gordon Brown would go, I am not keen on him at all.

I am more ecstatic and relieved that the BNP got nowhere in this election, despite getting more votes they didn’t win any seats [see BBC], and this just proves there is no place for hate in UK today, this is in a very small minority.  Recently there were quite a few horror stories regarding the BNP including one of the their candidates beating up members of the public [see BBC] and another one sending an abusive email to an LGBT group [see Pink Paper].

The title of his comic is called Turf released by Image Comics.  The story is set in 1829 New York, the prohibition era, and the artwork is very good and reflects that period very well indeed.  The story unfolds with numerous surprises, at first it looked like a drama set in that time period, then came along the vampires, then came the aliens.  Certainly kept my attention throughout the whole book.

Normally I can get through a comic in about 15 minutes or so but this one took me much longer, there is a lot of content.  There are certainly more words in this comic than most others I read or have read in a long time.  At parts it looked a little overcrowded but got used to it.  In fact, it was more like reading a mini book than a comic, I certainly feel like I got my money’s worth.  Some reviewers have said this first comic sets the scene for a ‘Turf War’, so maybe we’ll see New Yorkers vs Vampires vs Aliens?

The next issue is out on 26th May.  Jonathan Ross can be followed on Twitter.

First, to get things into perspective following are some statistics on both cities which indicates London has a harder job than Vancouver:

Population (Metro): London = 13,945,000; Vancouver = 2,116,581
Square Mile: London = 659 sq mi; Vancouver = 1,111.4 sq mi

Cleanliness

Vancouver wins hands down, the Translink system is quite spotless.  You will see the odd piece of rubbish in Vancouver but not much, the City has excellent policies towards recycling, you will see newspaper recycle bins at station and virtually no rubbish left on the trains.  London is pretty bad, you can bet that people will dump their free newspapers and rubbish anywhere even if the bin is within reaching distance.

Overcrowding

Both cities have their problems but it really depends what lines you travel on, the time of day, and direction you are going in.  Rush hour is not a good time going into cities in the morning and going home in the evenings.  For example, when Translink built their new Canada Line it looks as though they didn’t do their research properly because there is 85% capacity already and they envisaging those numbers to grow.  London continues to grow but the transport infrastructure cannot seem to keep up with the demand.

Journey Information

I love the handy paper London tube map you can carry with you, and it has become somewhat of an institution, but Translink has no such equivalent.  I am not sure I like the ‘interactive’ map on the Translink site, it does have a down-loadable map to print off yourself, however not all browsers/operating systems support their asp download process.  The Paris Metro map folds down into a much smaller version which is the best I have seen.

Translink have a service where you can check bus schedule times on your mobile device from the 5 digit numbers on the stop sign and this service is very good but I have found it to be sporadic and unreliable during the weekends.

London Transport are notorious for not delivering travel delays on the tube quick enough, this is different on Translink who are very quick.  However, on Translink their loud speaker system is not too good and difficult to understand the messages.

Closures

There are a lot of complaints of closures on the London Underground network, this is part of an ‘investment plan’ to improve the system.  Although no one likes the closures the end results have been amazing, I love what they have done to stations like Westminster, Canada Water and Canary Wharf. I don’t see any many closures on Translink, it is quite a new system compared to London, however have seen some work at various stations such as Commercial Broadway.

Cost

Where I paid £99 a month for two zones in London I pay $110 a month on the same for Translink. That makes translink less expensive, taken at today’s exchange rate.  In addition to being able to travel with the zones as many times as you want Translink also offers other special deal such as more than one person can travel on your season ticket on Sunday’s.  I do protest when any public transport system increases their fare’s above the rate of inflation, this is not fair on passengers.

Delays

I would say these are pretty rare on Translink, I have experienced the odd train getting stalled at a station due to a medical emergency or a train going out of service in front but would say the delay has been cleared up by less than 5 minutes each time, quite an impressive record.  Can’t say the same of London Transport, I have lost count the number of times I have been inconvenienced by them!  In the snow or freezing conditions London tends to ground to a halt, Vancouver seems to keep on going but…..yes, there is a but, they have on a number of occasions forget about de-icing the cables which in turn causes delays in getting these buses out and about.

Accessibility

When the tube was first built it really wasn’t designed for accessibility issues and would take a huge amount of money to re-design the stations.  Not really acceptable but I guess that is the way it is, however, there are many newer stations that have these facilities available.  I really would not know how a person in a wheelchair would be able to get on the Northern Line.  From what I have seen Vancouver is designed a little bit more considerate of all types of people but I wouldn’t presume to comment further as I don’t have the experience that others have.

Passengers

Public transport can bring out the best and worst in people, the better journey’s I have taken are when there are few passengers around!  People are so much more nicer in Vancouver than in London, I felt as though I had targets all over my body in London so that people just had to bump and push into me!  Vancouver does have its colourful characters as well but are generally so much nicer than Londoners.

There are quite a few Vancouver people who are similar to Londoners in their habits, for example, pushing past people to get on the train first, putting feet on seats, playing music too loud, shouting on their mobile phones, sitting in the aisle and not letting anyone get by, wanting to be the first off the train, running for a train and hitting people in the process, eating stinky food, not letting senior citizens sit down…well, I could go on.  I generally never say anything because I am sure I am not the perfect commuter either unless someone hits me while running – that’s where a line has to be drawn!!

There are random acts of kindness from passengers in both cities which puts my faith back into life!

Design

I find the Translink system without character, the stations are antiseptic looking, sometimes you can’t tell one station from another.  The lines and stations that are built on large concrete pillars over the street are ugly, well I am sorry but grey concrete is not nice and will get worse as they age.  London Transport is much better, the older stations are interesting as it is like looking back on history and many were artistically built, there also seems to be quite a lot of thought gone into the design of some of the newer stations as well.  I like how London has Poetry on the Underground, it gave you something interesting to read on the way to work, it would be nice is Translink did something like this too.  At first the TV screens on some Translink were interesting but lost interest when I realised it was just another opportunity to shove advertising in your face!

Communication

London Transport clearly has the best tools with some great gadgets that I use even though I left London 18 months ago!!  Translink has the best mobile app for looking up timetables for buses on the iPhone and Blackberry, just key in the number on the bus sign and get the schedule for the buses that stop there, very cool.  Translink have a blog and many twitter accounts which they monitor frequently and respond with lightning speed, London Transport don’t have such a thing yet however I can understand why because it would be impossible to manage with potentially many comments from the public, being a larger city that is.  Translink PR has a reputation of being very defensive if someone says something bad about their system, aggressively so, colleagues told me about this and didn’t really take it in until I have seen some of their reactions to not so diplomatic tweets and so on.  As a company it would be bad practice to get emotional with customers even though they may not be so kind.  Not really had any experience of London Transport PR.

Staff

Vancouver staff seem so much happier than in London.  Staff go out of their way on a day to day basis on Translink, helping people on and off the bus, saying hello and so on.  Not really had any poor experiences with London staff, on the whole everyone is very helpful, but don’t seem as happy, maybe pressures of a large city.

Summary

No system is perfect but I would say Vancouver is better, maybe its just because I get to see the mountains and beach on my journey to and from work, beautiful!

The film has been accepted by the Vancouver Queer Film Festival which takes place this August 2010.  This is extremely exciting news for Roger and Jim but also for all Love Exiles since this will raise more awareness of the issues that couples have to face as a result of these draconian and out of date laws.  Roger and Jim will also be submitting the film to other film festivals so we look forward to this having an extended audience in the near future!

Don and I will appear in the film, and although I do not like seeing or hearing myself on film there is no time for vanity when there is such an important cause to tell the world about.

More information coming soon about this movie…

This seems to be quite a coup for the company who is releasing the new comic series, as it’s being written by William F Nolan one of the two people who originally authored the book.  The book was published in 1967 and the film released in 1976.  I wasn’t really a big fan of the movie and preferred the short-lived TV series of 1977/8 which recently had a revival in the UK and on iTunes.

I am not sure that I will like the new comic book as it will probably be based more on the film rather than the TV program, however, I shall pick it up anyhow and see what it’s like.

The comic book seems to be the start of Logan’s Run fever since there is a new movie proposed due for release in 2012.  Doesn’t seem to be much news about it at the moment.

Click on the pictures below for a larger view.

Letter to Obama and Congress

A letter from 60 members of congress has been sent to Obama and Congressional Leaders to encourage the passing of legislation that would end discrimination in immigration law against same sex couples.  Unlike many other countries a US citizen cannot sponsor their foreign partner to live with them in their own country.  The letter is to encourage the passing of the Uniting American Families Act and include this in comprehensive immigration reform.  The 60 members who signed this is lead by Tammy Baldwin and the letter can be found here.

There was this story a little while ago suggesting the exclusion of UAFA from comprehensive immigration reform, whether it was true or not I do not know, the letter though will put added pressure on legislators to include it.  A list of those who signed the letter can be found here.

Immigration Equality Action Fund

Immigration Equality launched a video on Valentines Day documenting Shirley Tan’s story as a tool to lobby legislators and to raise money for the organizations efforts.  The video highlights a families day to day existence, which doesn’t differ from anybody else’s, but have the unenviable challenge of being pulled apart by unfair and draconian immigration legislation.  They have launched a new website yesterday called the Immigration Equality Action Fund.  This originally got launched on the Huffington Post website.  See the video at the end of this post.

Latest Co-sponsors

Unfortunately HR1024 in the House of Representatives has only 1 new co-sponsor since 6 November 2009 and that is Daniel Maffei of New York, making a total of 119 co-sponsors.  S424, in the Senate, has no change in co-sponsors since November remaining at 23.  HR2709, the Reuniting Families Act in the House of Representatives, has a total of 79 co-sponsors but no movement on that this year so far.

It was a very colourful and noisy event, the noise of course coming from the many crackers going off.  Click on a picture to view a large one.

The main organization that seemed to cause disruption on the opening day of the Olympics was “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land“, please go to their FAQ section to find out more about them.  Also, another group calling themselves the Poverty Olympics is drawing attention to the high level of homeless people in Vancouver, in fact this is something that shocked me when I arrived here.  Homeless numbers do seem to increase in the cities that host the games because they push out people and build multi-million dollar buildings where their homes used to be.  Others are also protesting about the large sums of money which has been spent on the Olympics especially during a poor economy.  Also some protests are against the Royal Bank of Canada‘s investments into Tar Sands projects and the impact it has on the environment, RBC is an Olympic sponsor.

Unfortunately the peaceful protests have been overshadowed by rent-a-mob, a bunch of anarchists who are determined to vandalize and scare communities just for the sake of it.  The group/s involved in this today use the “Black Bloc” concept where they dress in black attire with masks so they cannot be identified, they surprisingly have a number of Facebook groups which are highly disturbing, I am surprised these haven’t been taken down.

I found the following protests to be quite disturbing:

• Stephen Harper was due to visit a Chinese Cultural Centre but protesters tied yellow tape round the building and put chains on the doors, this trapped innocent people inside.  This is a horrible thing to do, what if there was an emergency like someone being ill or a fire.  Source: Globe and Mail
• The destruction of personal and corporate property, plus violence against the police in a riot that occurred this morning.  CTV Edmonton has disturbing raw footage from the riots.

The violent side of the protests are a terrible shame because some of the causes are justified and have good reason to lobby Government.

The office went out to see the Torch Relay and as you can see by the photo’s below the children were absolutely loving it, shouting and singing their heads off, that was in Burnaby.  I was then quite surprised to see the Torch Relay a second time when I was going through Broadway/Commercial Skytrain Station.

There was some controversy from the Russian team where an athlete was investigated for a doping breach (source: CTV).  Also, very sadly a Georgian athlete died while training (source: The Guardian), but despite that the team did bravely attend the opening ceremonies, and there was a 1 minute silence in his honour.

Despite the technical error the opening ceremony was good (although I think the British will do better!) and I learnt something interesting – The British are good at Curling.  Well, I had never knew the British were into that at all, personally I find it quite an odd sport but evidently there is a British Curling organisation – who would have thought!

Also some great news today, Vancouver is the first city to host an Olympics that has an LGBT Pride House, learn more about it at Xtra.

Product: Corn Flakes
Size: 750g
Price UK: 2.00
Price Canada: $2.98
Commentary: This product is cheaper in Canada.  Equivalent to 1.74 in the UK.

Product: Pepsi (bottle)
Size: 2 litres
Price UK: 1.59
Price Canada: $1.79
Commentary: This product is cheaper in Canada. Equivalent to 1.05 in the UK.

Product: Haagen Dazs
Size: 500ml
Price UK: 2.50
Price Canada: $5.99
Commentary: This product is cheaper in the UK.  Equivalent to 3.50 in the UK.

Product: Gillette Mach 3 Disposable Razors
Size: 3 in total
Price UK: 3.00
Price Canada: $8.98
Commentary: This product is cheaper in the UK.  Equivalent to 5.25 in the UK.

I think I am better off in Canada overall but I find its good to check against UK prices to see if I am getting a good deal or not.

This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.

When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move.  Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the world…’No, You Move’!”

Quote from Captain America in Amazing Spider-Man issue 537.

This is unlikely to be the end of the Stephen Gately story though.  Gave It All Away is the first Stephen Gately song to be released since his death.  It was obviously recorded before his death but the video was made after and included raw footage of Stephen intermixed with clips with fellow Boyzone band members.  The lyrics of the song have been considered a tragic irony relating to his death.  See the official Boyzone website for more on this video.

According to some reports a tribute concert is planned for the Spring but it has not been announced who the guest stars will be as yet.  Source What’s On TV.

A Bulgarian model, who was “supposed” to be with Stephen Gately and his partner at the time of his death has stated that he knew and had sexual relations with both of them for a number of years.  Source Pink News.  I’m not sure if this story is to be taken seriously and if so who gives a damn about it anyway.

Stephen Gately’s partner Andy Cowles has complained to the Press Complains Commission concerning the awful article Jan Moir wrote just one day prior to his funeral.  The PCC said they wouldn’t take the complaints forward without a family member or one of the band members complaining.  So, now they have I am wondering when this will be addressed by the PCC?

So a heartbreaking story and unfortunately with some controversy too.

Erroll Southers, who was completely qualified to take over running the Transport Security Administration, had his nomination supported by virtually everyone.  However, ultra-plonker Senator Jim DeMint bought a crazy issue of unionization of the TSA into the mix, turned this into a political fight that Southers couldn’t win no matter what happened, and decided to step down.  What is even crazier than Jim DeMint’s pathetic argument was the fact that the Democrats didn’t defend Southers, WTF is going on in the Obama administration?  They are behaving like sheep ready to be slaughtered.  Listening to Southers on the Rachel Maddow Show tonight he sounds totally brilliant so this is a big loss for America.

What on earth has happened to Health Care Reform?  Is there anything left in it that Obama originally promised?  Today they announced that pre-existing conditions will be taken out of the bill with exception to those under 19 years of age.  Well, I would have thought that pre-existing is relevant when you get older so that means taking it out will not benefit many people at all!

The Supreme Court, in their conservative un-gorgeousness, has decided to lift all restrictions on corporate spending on Federal Campaigns.  Now large companies can put all the money they want on the table to get what they want in politics.  This will drown out the voice that individuals have in politics, so what will be the point for people to vote on issues if companies are going to get their way all the time.  Often large companies go for the Conservative vote and look where this got the country in the last administration, down the financial toilet.

OMG! Don’t get me started on the election in Massachusetts and the win for Scott Brown!  The first time in almost 50 years that Democrats haven’t got that seat.  Why on earth did Obama leave it so late to motivate his party and the voters?  What a wet weekend Martha Coakley was!

To top a bad day in Politics for America we learn tonight that Air America has filed for bankruptcy and is now closed, see the farewell message on their website.  This will please the Republican’s a lot!  Source Huffington Post.

…and what of all the LGBT legislation Obama promised to address?  Nothing has happened!  Nothing!  I just want to give Obama a shove to get a move on with his promises, to motivate and bring his party together, and stop caving into the Republican’s!

Normally you can simply upgrade through the WordPress interface but this release uses version 4.1.2 of MySQL. When I created the blog my ISP was only supporting up to 4.0.27 which it was currently on.  So basically I had to do a complete new install of WordPress.

I created the new database at my host 1&1 then installed WordPress. I already backed up everything from my old blog and attempted to import it into the new one.  However it didn’t import all my posts and wasn’t sure why.  Eventually I sussed it out that I should have installed all my plugins, I did this and everything worked fine.

I have put on the finishing touches this morning by adding my blogroll, changing settings and so on!  I even installed a lighbox plugin to display my photos, first set in the previous post.

Senate Hearings

There were Senate hearings for the Uniting American Families Act for which Shirley Tan testified.  It was an extremely emotional appearance which put a face to the struggle that gay and lesbian people have to go through in order to remain together in the US.  Shirley Tan, who described herself as an ordinary mother just wanting to care for her family, won Advocate magazines Activist of 2009.

HIV Ban Lifted

Obama lifted the ban on those living with HIV being able to travel or to immigrate to the US.  Among immigration advocates this was seen as an amazing step forward.  PBS Article.

Uniting American Families Act Co-sponsors

HR1024 in the House now has 118 co-sponsors, sadly no one new has signed up since 6th November.  S424 in the Senate has 23 co-sponsors, again no one signing up since 18th November.  Maybe this isn’t being taken seriously until immigration reform is addressed next year.

Reuniting Families Act

Congressman Mike Honda introduced the Reuniting Families Act (H.R. 2709) which addresses America’s current broken system and keeping families together in the US.  Mike Honda said that immigrants are more successful with a family safety net surrounding them and the current backlogs in the system are causing great strain on people.  An LGBT element has been included within this legislation is such a way it cannot be compromised in any way.  This legislation is likely to be addressed during 2010 as part of wider immigration reform.

As of January 1st, 2010 this bill has 76 co-sponsors.

Press and Publicity

There certain has been more publicity for this issue than ever before, following are some articles of note:

• Gay couples should be allowed to stay together in the United States – Washington Post
• Bill Proposes Immigration Rights for Gay Couples – New York Times
• Comprehensive, Inclusive Immigration Reform: The Most Important Gift of All – Huffington Post
• Same-sex couples seek immigration benefit – Associated Press
• Legislation Watch: A Nation of Immigrants – The Nation
• Desperately Seeking Freedom – Newsweek