Binational & Bisexual Discrimination
September 23, 2009 by Amanda Morgan, GLAAD's Digital Initiatives Fellow
Renata Moreira
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Renata Moreira
I have come across endless stories of im/migration since transplanting myself here from Brazil over 12 years ago. Many of our stories reflect the search for better economic opportunities, the escape from persecution, access to quality education, healthcare, and so on. My story echoes such narratives, but with a delicious twist: I moved here for love, migrated by choice, and stayed with pride.
Karla, my girlfriend at the time, picked me up at the Detroit International Airport during a freezing January morning in 1997. I had been granted an F-1 visa (student visa) and was ready to start a new life with my partner. It was all bliss for a few years, but as we grew apart I realized I had found a new love: my American compatriots. My romantic relationship was soon over, but I chose to continue building a solid relationship with my new American families and transferred to a college in NYC.
A few years later, I met Brad – a good ol’ Jersey boy who became my dear hubby and green card sponsor. I obtained my permanent residency in 2002 after filling out piles of paperwork with the INS (now Homeland Security). Our commitment and friendship was an incredible experience, but our marriage did not turn out how we expected (him a musician, me a political scientist), so we got an amicable separation in 2005.
A year later, I fell in love with an incredible Brazilian woman during a trip to visit my family only to experience the biggest heartbreak of all: I was not allowed to sponsor her into this country as my ex-husband had done for me. We applied for student visas, working visas, research visas, you name it. The United States wouldn’t even allow her to visit me! We considered immigrating to Canada, where we hoped we would be able to reunite, but I could not secure residency there due to my status here. What a limbo! After two years of pain, expenses, and separation I chose not to move back to Brazil and our long distance relationship was officially over.
But the story doesn’t end there – Being bisexual, and perfectly capable of falling in love with someone from any gender/sex, puts me in a position of being singled out for scrutiny over and over again. Some immigration officers now claim that my previous marriage was false and done only for green card purposes and so I continuously experience bi-phobia and live fear that my citizenship application may be denied due to my sexual orientation. It is sad that this country that I learned to love and call my home continues to reinforce discriminatory immigration laws that destroy families and diminish our pride of becoming “Americans.”
Renata Moreira, a Brazilian American educator, activist, and performer, has worked to promote full equality for LGBT families and to end violence against women and children for over a decade. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and is pursuing interdisciplinary graduate studies in Sociology and Gender at the Graduate Center of CUNY. For more information and speaking engagements contact renatamoreira2010@gmail.com.
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