The fight for gay rights and immigrant rights, can they overlap?

Gay Rights and Immigrant Rights. There are probably many progressive people out there who see the importance of both, and would fight for both. I'm sure there are also more than a few people who might fight for just one of these causes, but not the other.

There are probably a few conservative immigrants, for example, as well as immigrant advocates, possibly affiliated with churches or religious organizations, who are fighting for a stop to workplace ICE raids, deportations, inhumane detention conditions, and are also for some sort of Commprehensive Immigration Reform, but, if asked, also feel that Homosexuality is a sin, and that gays and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to legally marry, or be given the same rights as straight people.

Then, on the flip side, there are probably also gays and lesbians who do not know of any gay or lesbian immigrants, personally, and wouldn't support upholding the rights of undocumented immigrants, possibly for reasons similar to people who feel strongly against granting "amnesty" to a large group of people who didn't follow proper methods for migrating here in the first place, whether by crossing over a border without authorization, or overstaying a visa.

I'm sure there are also some gays and lesbians so focused on the current fight for marriage rights for same-sex couples for citizens, that they simply haven't taken the time to fully understand what immigrant rights are about, in order to fully support it. Many of these people think of the LGBT community as mainly made up of US citizens, and haven't valued, much less identified, that immigrants might also be part of the LBGT community, with some separate needs than their citizen counterparts.

But what about those people that fall into both categories of these perceived separate groups? Do they need to choose one over the other, in terms of importance, in terms of which is more important to fight for? Is there a way to get more LGBT citizens to recognize immigrants within their communities, and for immigrant communities to, likewise, recognize and identify their LGBT members? Is there also a way to get both respective groups to see commonalities and to find ways to cooperate and work together to achieve each other's separate goals?

Yesterday I marched in protest against the passing of Prop 8, the anti-gay marriage initiative, and--what can I say?--I felt so alone as a minority. Not a gay minority, but as a person of color. Sure there were some black people, and that was important. But there seemed to be a lack of other minorities, or maybe I'm just not used to seeing the LGBT community in Seattle, and how largely white it really is.

I've no doubt that there were other minorities, but it was in the context of these minorities being part of a bi-racial couple. There were a few asian and white couples, mostly men, which, don't get me wrong, I'm glad there's that, too. It's just that I was hoping to see more people of color that were marching together, to show that they were people of color and gay or supportive of gay rights as well.

I did have three latinos with me--my partner, my two coworkers, a latino and a latina. But I really couldn't see that many other gay people of color. I realize it might have had to do with the limited time that organizers had to put this together, but I was truly hoping for more formal representation from the gay people of color communities, and they seemed to be almost non-existent.

I realize I'm part of the problem too. I have not joined any gay people of color organizations, and neither has my partner. So I guess I might be part of the problem, not the solution.

This post is sort of a rant, I'm not sure what the solution is.