Out U.S. Congressman Jared Polis joined a group of his colleagues and more than 30 advocacy groups yesterday at a press conference on Capitol Hill to call for immigration reform that includes LGBT families.  The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld reported:

The press conference and the lawmakers’ insistence on LGBT inclusion represents a shift in the immigration landscape away from a deference to social conservative groups who have fought to exclude same-sex couples from the greater immigration effort.

[Rep. Jerrold] Nadler [D-N.Y.] addressed one of the main objections of conservative groups head-on during Thursday’s press conference. While some detractors of [the Uniting American Families Act] have suggested that allowing LGBT people to sponsor their partners is related to the marriage debate, Nadler rejected the assertion emphatically. 

“It is simply a question of whether the law should [perpetuate] gratuitous cruelty,” he said. “Keeping couples apart is simply gratuitous, purposeless cruelty on the part of our government. Government should never ever engage in purposeless gratuitous cruelty.”

Learn more about UAFA and Immigration Equality’s fight to include LGBT families in comprehensive immigration reform here.