The walking route has changed from a well-pruned café society to a haven for dogs who love to forage for chicken bones.
Dear President Obama,
We write to you as Americans forced into exile in South Africa because of your administration's enforcement of the Defence of Marriage Act and because of immigration laws that discriminate against binational lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families. We have been all but abandoned by our government. We need your help in achieving the right to come home.
You recently affirmed that providing protection for binational LGBT families as part of immigration reform would be "the right thing to do". Yet, only days later, your administration urged Senator Patrick Leahy not to call for a vote on an amendment to the Bill to provide those very protections.
Mr President, actions speak louder than words. That amendment would have provided us with a bridge, enabling our return to the United States.
Not knowing or having any control over how the Supreme Court may rule on the Defence of Marriage Act, the inclusion of same-sex, binational couples in "comprehensive" immigration reform was our last hope for change that we had any power to shape. Having been excluded from the Bill, we are more isolated than ever.
We were counting on the Democratic Party to support us during this moment of immigration-reform history. After all, it was only last year that it modified its platform to come out in support of same-sex marriage. Yet, on the very first occasion since the platform was amended, when our Democratic senators were called on to stand up for LGBT rights, they yielded to bigotry. Four Democratic senators in the Senate judiciary committee refused to support us. As a result, we continue to be denied the right to live in our country with our loved ones, where we would create jobs and contribute to the economy and society. Our futures have never been more uncertain.
You will be travelling to South Africa next month. We respectfully implore you to find time to meet us during that visit. The Americans you are elected to represent include those of us who no longer enjoy the luxury of being able to live in the US. Having been traded as a bargaining chip for political expediency by both our senators and your administration, our future appears to depend now on how the Supreme Court rules on the Act.
If that ruling is not favourable, we may never be able to come home. Thus we need to meet to discuss the steps that we and our government can and should be taking. Simply put, we have no one else to turn to. Please do not abandon us. – Dan Brotman (originally Massachusetts, now Cape Town), William Daniels (originally Ohio, now Cape Town), Carol Lipshitz (originally Pennsylvania, now Cape Town), Michael McDonald (originally New York, now Cape Town), Griffin Shea (originally Louisiana, now Johannesburg), Caroline Triggs (originally Mississippi, now Cape Town), Anthony von Reichert (originally Georgia, now Pretoria), Nicole Wallace (originally Tennessee, now Cape Town)