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Op-ed: Gay DREAMer Says Immigration Reform Should Include Our Parents Too

Op-ed: Gay DREAMer Says Immigration Reform Should Include Our Parents Too

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Jorge Gutierrez's mother fought for him to thrive, and now he's fighting for her to remain in the U.S.

Editor's note: An English version of this essay is below the Spanish version.
Siempre he visto a mi madre como una leona, ella es una mujer que tiene mucha compasion, inteligencia y sabiduria aunque solo llego al segundo grado. Ella me inspiro a tener el coraje de decir con orgullo y sin verguenza: soy UndocuQueer; es decir, soy indocumentado y tambien soy parte de la comunidad lesbica, gay, bisexual, transgenero.
Al igual que yo, mi madre tambien es indocumentada. Sin embargo, mientras que yo, por mi educacion universitaria, tengo acceso a un camino a la ciudadania bajo la actual propuesta de reforma migratoria, ella no lo tiene. Eso no esta bien.
Recuerdo muy claramente cuando mi familia vivia en Nayarit, Mexico. En muchas ocasiones no habia comida en casa, pero nuestra madre se iba a tocar puertas en busca de trabajo para poder darle de comer a mis hermanos y a mi. Ahora, dieciocho anos despues, ella continua igual de trabajadora y tan dispuesta como siempre para hacer cualquier cosa por sus hijos.
Durante mas de 15 anos mi mama ha trabajado como una empleada domestica, desempenandose como ninera y tambien limpiando casas. En su trabajo ha tenido que soportar humillacion, discriminacion, y muchas veces ha recibido pagos por debajo del salario minimo. Pero lo que mas le ha dolido es las muchas veces que tuvo que faltar a nuestros eventos escolares, reuniones de padres y cenas familiares con sus hijos porque se iba de la casa temprano cada manana y regresaba muy tarde en la noche. Con lagrimas en los ojos nos pedia perdon; pero jamas cuestione su amor y su compromiso con mi bienestar y felicidad.
Ella es la misma mujer que me abrazo y acepto plenamente cuando a mis 15 anos de edad le dije que era gay, un momento que siempre recordare. Era un sabado por la noche y ella me habia recogido del trabajo. Apenas habiamos llegado a un semaforo en rojo en la interseccion de las calles 17 y Main en Santa Ana, California, de repente me pregunto: "?Te gustan los ninos o las ninas?" Me quede aturdido y en completo silencio durante unos segundos, hasta que finalmente le pude contestar: "Me gustan los ninos" (Bueno, por supuesto, en ese entonces me gustaban los ninos, !pero ahora me gustan los hombres!). Cuando el semaforo cambio a verde, busco estacionarse rapidamente y me dijo que saliera del carro. Yo estaba aterrorizado. Ella se bajo del carro tambien, dio la vuelta y con lagrimas en los ojos, me abrazo y me dijo: "Como madre solo puedo aceptarte, amarte y protegerte." En ese momento, su abrazo y sus palabras transformaron mi vida para siempre y a partir de ese momento empece a perder todo el miedo y la verguenza que habia estado cargando desde que era nino. Desde entonces me ha apoyado como su hijo gay y me ha motivado a participar en mi comunidad.
Ahora mas que nunca tengo que estar en solidaridad con ella, como una mujer indocumentada, como madre y trabajadora del hogar; asi como ella me ha apoyado estando a mi lado todos estos anos como su hijo UndocuQueer.
No voy a estar de acuerdo con una reforma migratoria que solo beneficie a pocos y deje afuera a muchos por causa de barreras injustas y poco realistas que impiden su acceso a un camino a la ciudadania. Debido a posibles requisitos de trabajo e ingresos minimos en la propuesta de reforma migratoria, se excluiria a muchos inmigrantes -- tales como mi madre -- del camino a la ciudadania, ya que trabajan como jornaleros o trabajadores domesticos o en empleos de salario minimo. Y la realidad es que muchas personas lesbianas, gays, bisexuales, y transgenero que son indocumentadas tambien tienen empleos de salario minimo para mantener a sus familias aqui. Cabe resaltar que estos requisitos tambien excluirian a personas LGBT que tienen dificultades en conseguir trabajo debido a la discriminacion por su orientacion sexual o identidad de genero.
Ninguno de nosotros debe estar de acuerdo con una reforma migratoria que deja fuera a las madres ... y a los padres, abuelos, y hermanos de inmigrantes LGBT y heterosexuales.
JORGE GUTIERREZ es un coordinador para el Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, un proyecto de United We Dream, la organizacion en pro de los inmigrantes liderada por jovenes mas grande del pais. La historia de Jorge Gutierrez se cuenta en el documental Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth, que tiene como objetivo humanizar la lucha diaria de muchos inmigrantes indocumentados.
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My mother is a lioness, a woman with a second-grade education but with plenty of compassion, intelligence and wisdom. She inspired me to have the courage to say proudly and unashamedly: I am queer and undocumented. I am UndocuQueer.
Like me, my mother is also undocumented. But while I have access to a pathway to citizenship under proposed immigration legislation because I am college-educated, she does not. That is not OK.
I vividly remember my family's days in Nayarit, Mexico, when there were times we had no food to eat, but my amazing mother would knock on doors trying to find jobs to provide a meal for my siblings and me. Eighteen years later she is still as hardworking as ever and still willing to do anything and everything for her children.
My mom has been a domestic worker for more than 15 years, enduring backbreaking work as a babysitter and housekeeper as well as humiliation, discrimination, too often getting paid way below minimum wage. For her, the most painful part has been the many times she missed our school events, parent meetings, and family dinners with me and my siblings because she would leave early in the morning and return late at night. She would apologize to us with tears in her eyes; I never questioned her love and her commitment to my well-being and happiness.
This is the same woman who fully embraced and accepted me when I came out to her as gay. I remember that moment vividly. I was 15. It was a Saturday evening at the intersection of 17th Street and Main in Santa Ana, Calif. She had just picked me up from my part-time job, we came to a red light, and she suddenly asked me "?Te gustan los ninos o las ninas?" ("Do you like boys or girls?") Shocked, I stayed silent for a few seconds, but I finally responded, "Me gustan los ninos" (Well, of course at the time it was boys, but now I like men!) The light turned green and she turned into the nearest parking lot and told me to get out of the car; I became terrified. Stiff, she got out of the car too, walked around the car, and with tears in her eyes she hugged me and told me, "Como madre solo puedo aceptarte, amarte, y protegerte" ("All I can do as a mother is accept, love, and protect you.") At that moment, her hug and her words transformed my life forever, and I began to lose all the fear and shame I had been carrying since I was a child. Since then she has supported me as her queer son and inspired me to get involved in my community.
Now I must stand in solidarity with her as an undocumented woman, mother, and domestic worker just as she's stood with me all these years as her UndocuQueer son.
I will not be OK with benefiting from immigration reform if she's left out because of unfair and unrealistic roadblocks that prevent her access to a pathway to citizenship. The proposed work or income requirements in the proposed immigration reform would exclude many immigrants like my mom from becoming a citizen because they work as day laborers or domestic workers or at minimum-wage jobs. And the reality is that many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer undocumented people are also working minimum-wage jobs to support themselves and their families here. Many LGBTQ people are also out of work because of discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, so these requirements would also exclude them.
None of us should be OK with immigration reform that leaves out the mothers ... and the fathers, grandparents, and siblings of LGBTQ and straight immigrants.
Jorge Gutierrez's story is told in the film Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth, a documentary that aims to humanize the daily struggles of many immigrants. Gutierrez is a coordinator for the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, a project of United We Dream, the nation's largest youth-led pro-immigration organization.
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