The Queer Case for Individual Rights: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented
My name is Gabriella Bregman, I’m a Los Angeles-based writer-filmmaker from the Netherlands, currently producing a Feature Documentary about LGBTQ-Immigration Exclusion-Policy Discrimination.
‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented’ is an expose of the US’s “broken” immigration system, with its’ unconstitutional exclusion-policies and specific targeting of LGBTQ communities, (in a long history of policymaking designed to exploit minority groups,) and also features the story of my own situation as “queer and undocumented,” and former legal Film Student.
I am one of approximately 267.000 LGBTQ-undocumented immigrants, within a total 11 million undocumented immigrants. I am also a Legal Entry.
This is something the media does not want to discuss at all when talking about illegal immigration, nor the fact that within that group of initial Legal Entries a small percentage were federally discriminated against by the Defense Of Marriage Act of 1996, (all the way up until 2015 when DOMA got struck down,) because they were part of the LGBTQ community, and so excluded from “family law immigration sponsorship,” marriage, which is the single most common, and often only, way to legally immigrate to the US at all. These immigrants, and US Citizen spouses, are DOMA victims.
I also wrote an article called ‘The DOMA Victims Act for Legal Entries,’ based on an idea I have for a piece of legislation.
In 1992, at age 19, I moved to the US legally from the Netherlands, on a 5-year Student Visa to study film in Los Angeles, through enrollment in the Film Program at Los Angeles City College, and with intent to transfer to a 4-year university on a visa-extension, (aiming for UCLA,) but within my first school semester I was pressured into an immigration marriage by a fellow film student, canceling out my Student Visa status. (He also became a fairly well-known screenwriter, which doesn’t exactly help my case.)
After divorcing my husband I couldn’t legalize myself due to the Defense Of Marriage Act of 1996, and the fact that I’m lesbian, which was the primary reason for the divorce in 1994.
I identify as a gender nonconforming lesbian. (I experience no body dysphoria and happen to not need any medical or legal transitioning procedures myself, yet do consider myself to be trans-masculine or gender nonconforming and this gender identity, on top of my sexual orientation, did further complicate social and immigration matters for me.)
I was subjected to domestic violence, (including 7 years of homelessness,) in two opposite-sex marriages I couldn’t defend myself against legally in the US, because of this country’s stance against same-sex marriage, and its’ exclusion from immigration policy prior to June 26 2015, when DOMA was struck down federally.
I have paid my taxes in the US for 24 years, working at the Laemmle Theatres, volunteering for Film Independent and producing a John Cassavetes Film Retrospective in 2001, but have been labeled “illegal” by the government and rendered deportable without due process, (not in deportation proceedings however.)
If I would have immigrated to the US post-DOMA, 2015, I would have at least qualified for citizenship through same-sex marriage, (marriage practically being the only option in the almost non-existent pathway to US citizenship.)
I now qualify through the Violence Against Women Act and am working on legalization with an immigration lawyer but to have been undocumented for almost 20 years, “persecuted on paper,” has been unbearable in every way, and is in fact retroactive punishment, also in the process destroying any chance at love with a woman before the Defense Of Marriage Act of 1996 was finally struck down in June of 2015.
In July of 2015 I came out as “queer and undocumented” socially and online to add my voice to the ongoing immigration conversation in rational defense of fair and comprehensive immigration reform; I believe the right to mobility is a universal, human right and not an American privilege.
The fact remains today that without a pathway to US citizenship as the single most highest priority in any attempt at fair and comprehensive immigration reform, one simply cannot be an individual person and immigrate legally and stay legally to live and work in the US.
Such a pathway or line does not exist; there is no “real” line for family, (and “earning individual rights” through family association is technically unconstitutional,) and only a “broken” line to nowhere for employees, (employers do not sponsor because it’s not worth the money and the trouble.)
To not have the individual right to pursue income, like not having the individual right to keep one’s earnings, is a real form of slavery.
A merit-based immigration system, (based on intellectual and emotional intelligence, and according to the “individual rights” principle,) would be a fair way to reform the current system.
(The visa quotas and principles regarding a country’s acceptance of refugees is an altogether different matter than immigration, although often mixed up with it, and should instead be agreed on under international, human rights law, by the UN’s standards.)
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Click Here for: 2018 Update on Documentary ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights’ (2018)
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For Parts 1 and 2 of the Backstory of ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights: From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented,’ Click the 2 Links Below, for the BACKSTORY:
My Life in The Netherlands Before Immigrating to The US in 1992 (part 1 of 2) (2015)
My Life in The Netherlands Before Immigrating to The US in 1992 (part 2 of 2) (2015)
For Parts 1 Through 5 of this 5-Part Story, Click the Links Below, the MAIN STORY:
My Life in The Netherlands Before Immigrating to The US in 1992 (part 1 of 2) (2015)
My Life in The Netherlands Before Immigrating to The US in 1992 (part 2 of 2) (2015)
From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented (part 1 of 5) (2017)
From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented (part 2 of 5) (2017)
From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented (part 3 of 5) (2017)
From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented (part 4 of 5)(2017)
From International Film Student to Queer and Undocumented (part 5 of 5) (2017)
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My name is Gabriella Bregman, I am a Hollywood-based Writer, Filmmaker and Producer, currently in production of a Feature Documentary about LGBTQ US-Immigration Exclusion-Policy, including my personal story of US immigration discrimination during DOMA, (Defense Of Marriage Act, of 1996–2015,) titled ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights,’ through my film production company Bregman Films.
The 2001 John Cassavetes Film Retrospective ‘Gena and John: A Cassavetes Retrospective’ at the Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles is a Bregman Films Production.
I am also the Founder of a Nonprofit Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles — A Media Site & LA Film Mixers (2018.)
In 2018 I am publishing my story and essays in a book, titled ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights & Other Essays.’
I identify as a Gender Nonconforming Lesbian, “non-op” Trans-Masculine, and Bi-Racial, from the Netherlands, Los Angeles-based.
My pronouns are: they/them/theirs.
Please check out my other articles on LGBTQ- and Immigration Issues, the State of Women and LGBTQ People in Film, and Lesbian/Queer Film as well as Queer Female Sexuality and Gender Identity at medium.com/@gabriellabregman
A few titles:
Resume/FILM BIO: Gabriella Bregman (2018) (2018)
2018 Update on Documentary ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights’ (2018)
A Note on the State of Women in Film (2016)
A Few Notes On LGBTQ Filmmaking (2017)
Some Thoughts on the State of Lesbian Filmmaking in the US (part 1 of 5) (2018)
John Cassavetes Film Retrospective (2001) (2018)
On ‘Moonlight’ and the Subject of Positive Representation (2017)
My 2018 Oscar Pick for Best Picture (2018)
In Defense of Rationality (2018)
In Defense of Individual Rights (2018)
A Few Notes on US Immigration Exclusion Policies Towards Women- and LGBTQ Immigrants (2014)
The Root Cause Of Misogyny, And The Necessity Of Free Will (Gender Binary System notes, part 1 of 7) (2016)
The Male And Female Brain, And The “Cause” Of Transgenderism(Gender Binary System notes, part 2 of 7) (2016)
The Gender-Binary System Was Created For Population Control And Slavery, Including Sex Slavery (Gender Binary System notes, part 7 of 7)
All Articles Written by Gabriella Bregman (TM). All Pictures Owned by Gabriella Bregman (TM). All Rights Reserved (2018)
