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Be Counted!

Love in Exile Workshop,
Outgames LGBT human rights conference, Montreal

From the conference Declaration of Montreal:

The world is getting smaller and smaller; more and more people travel the world, make friends, and meet lovers who sometimes become partners. But most countries deny to bi-national same-sex couples the right of one partner to sponsor the other for immigration, which different-sex married couples take for granted. Even same-sex couples who have a marriage certificate or a registered partnership, recognized by the country of origin of one of the partners, cannot be sure of their status when they move somewhere else.

• We demand of our respective national governments residence rights for our partners from abroad under the same conditions as different-sex married couples, without discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• We demand that international treaties on these matters be reformed and grant same-sex couples the same rights as different-sex married couples.

On Saturday July 29, 2006, Love Exiles presented its workshop on Love in Exile. The panelists spoke of their experiences having to leave behind a life to be with the person they love, and start up a life in a new country.

Many people in bi-national relationships attended the workshop and generously shared the stories of their joy and pain at finding love and being forced to start over in a new country. The focus was on the need for fair laws in the areas of immigration, recognition and protection of families, and the need to end exile for love. And the need for exiles to be open about who we are by sharing our stories with people around us. Hiding ourselves costs us tremendous energy and deprives the people around us of insight into our lives and the ability to support us.

Immediately following our workshop, Martina Navratilova echoed our words: she began her domination of women's tennis when she gained US citizenship and became open about who she is. Hiding herself had cost her success in her tennis career.

Ground-breaking human rights conference

The context for the workshop was the Outgames LGBT human rights conference, attended 1500 people from over 100 countries. The conference reframed the discussion of rights of LGBT people as basic human rights. All families need the same protections. All people who love want the same thing: to be legally together without threat of deportation or exile.

To put it simply: there are no gay rights, there are only human rights. We are all connected by our common humanity and we have the same needs as human beings. Our vision is to acknowledge and accept the barriers and differences between people, such a nationality, culture, sexuality, race, language, education, and life experience, and to create a world that works for all of us.

From the Declaration of Montreal:

Progress in realizing LGBT human rights demands multi-layered change in all parts of the world: rights must be secured, laws changed, new policies designed and implemented, and institutional practices adapted. LGBT individuals and groups are the prime agents of change. But we will only win if we enlist others as allies in our struggle.

Bring Love in Exile to your event or country

Love Exiles plans to present this workshop on a regular basis in Europe and North America, as well as globally. If you are interested in participating on a panel or would like to invite Love Exiles to present this workshop at your event, please contact exiles@xs4all.nl.

Workshop Moderator: Lin McDevitt-Pugh, Board Member, Love Exiles Foundation (Netherlands)
Panelists: Robert Bragar, Board Member, Love Exiles Foundation and former immigration attorney (Netherlands)
Martha McDevitt-Pugh, Chair, Love Exiles Foundation (Netherlands)
Gordon Stewart, love exile (UK)

© 2006 Stichting Love Exiles. All rights reserved.