BY STEVE ROTHAUS, SROTHAUS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
A proposed federal rule change would expand the definition of
“family” and allow nonmarried couples and others who live in one
household and are traveling abroad together to reenter the United States
with a single U.S. Customs declaration.
“It’s really an acknowledgement of what’s obvious to most people:
that gay families are families and should be treated as such when they
enter the United States,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality in New York.
In addition to adults in committed, long-term relationships, the rule
change would also include foster children, stepchildren, half-siblings,
legal wards, other dependents, according to the proposal by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security and the Treasury
departments.
Nowhere does the proposed rule change mention gay or lesbian
partners. The wording specifies “two adult individuals in a committed
relationship wherein the partners share financial assets and
obligations,” not including “roommates or other cohabitants.”
Also, the change removes the phrase “regardless of age” to include
adult partners, children and others. The proposal will be officially
released Tuesday for comments and could take effect in two months.
Customs estimates an annual savings of 72,600 “burden hours” under
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The government believes the change
would effect more than a million travelers a year or four minutes per
response.
Gay activists say the savings goes beyond dollars.
At present, gay couples traveling together must each go through Customs separately.
“I’ve experienced it personally and it’s humiliating,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida,
the state’s leading gay-rights group. “I know of people returning from
their honeymoon and it’s a particularly cruel slap in the face.”
Also, many gay families today travel with their children. “We should
never have to explain to our child why the person at the desk says we’re
not family,” said Smith, who co-parents son Logan, nearly 11 months,
with wife Andrea.
Key West real estate brokers Rudy Molinet and Harry Hoehn, partners
for 19 years, were married in 2003 in Canada. Last September, they had
their “lunch counter moment” when confronted by a Customs official at
the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
“When Harry and I approached the customs officer to enter, we walked
up together as did every other married couple in line. I was ordered to
‘get back in line, only families can come up here together,’” Molinet wrote on his personal blog.
“My partner was like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?’” Molinet said Monday.
Molinet said he and Hoehn, returning to the U.S. from Paris, faced off with the armed Customs agent.
“We were very professional. We did not get irate. If you do get
irate, they arrest you,” Molinet said. “He let us through because we
stood our ground. Begrudgingly. Rudely, I might add. We were being
treated like criminals. Some people might think it was not big deal, but
it was a big deal. ... It’s a metaphor for all the things gays and
lesbians go through.”
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