Friday, October 29, 2010

The Importance of Story Telling

Legislative progress for LGBT and immigrant rights after the midterm elections will proceed at a snail's pace at best or screech to a grinding halt at worst. I tend to think the latter, considering the current political climate and lack of leadership in Congress and the White House on civil rights and immigration reform.

As such, I think it is crucial that we all go back to the basics and continue chipping away at the ground level by changing hearts and minds one at a time. An effective way to achieve this is by sharing our stories as queer folk, as immigrants, or as both. This puts forth faces that challenge stereotypes thereby encouraging some fair-minded individuals to change their positions and take on seemingly intractable issues.

So when the Michael Eric Dyson Radio Show invited me to tell my story as both a gay man and an immigrant, I jumped at the opportunity. I was able to shed light on the unique challenges faced by same-sex binational couples like my husband and me, as well as point out the many problems that beset America's immigration system. My interview begins at the 13:30 minute mark.

You can follow me on Twitter at ErwindeLeon.

2 comments:

Lydia Cabasco said...

Thanks for sharing your story, Erwin. It's true, we do get second class citizen treatment in the complexity of immigration issues. As long as we make sure our stories our told, the intersection of queer, immigration, and labor issues won't be swept under the rug.

gayasylumuk said...

Erwin

I posted your interview on the website http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/11/audio-challenges-for-binational.html