Marriage Equality Now Seattle

United for a Healthy Washington, a group started by the Hate to Hope Coalition, is urging people in Washington State to decline to sign intiative I-946. The initiative, if put in the ballot and approved, would make it illegal to provide basic human and health services to people that cannot show proof of legal immigration status. It is part of the blatant right-wing Republican attempt to criminalize and denigrate immigrants –regardless, really, of their immigration status– that is sweeping the country.

Immigration is an issue that is closely tied to the fight for LGBTQ equality — and not only because many immigrants are LGBTQ people, sometimes forced to stay in the US illegally because they cannot marry their partner. This is also an issue where the right-wing is trying to persecute and remove rights from a minority — immigrants, especially of Hispanic origin –, the same way they are trying to persecute and remove right from LGBTQ people.

For more on the link between immigration rights and LGBTQ rights, you can read this press release from The Task Force.