ABSTRACT
As of 2006, there were an estimated 35,800 binational queer couples living without relationship recognition in the United States. This differential in state recognition of same-sex binational relationships for immigration sponsorship certainly represents a significant border between US and Canadian social policy. Unlike the US national lobby group Immigration Equality, who is presently advocating for same-sex marriage recognition as a tactic for extending binational immigration sponsorship privileges in US immigration policy, LEGIT was firmly opposed to same-sex marriage. Activist organizations such as LEGIT took advantage of shifting legal terrains to advance the situation of gays and lesbians in the immigration context, as has been relatively well documented by queer and feminist legal scholars. In early 1993, a group of 20 gay and lesbian citizens associated with LEGIT drew on the equality provisions to file complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the lack of relationship recognition in immigration law.
