Congress Introduces Bill for Gays to Sponsor Bi-National Partners

A bill that would allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born domestic partners for U.S. citizenship is on congress' plate since New York representative Jerrold Nadler reintroduced the bill Thursday.

So far, the current version of the Uniting American Families Act has 43 original cosponsors, with the list continually growing, Nadler's spokesman Ilan Kayatsky said, according to The Advocate.  

The 2009 bill is no different than the original bill Nadler introduced in May 2007, which ended up with 118 cosponsors attached.

Because the federal government does not recognize same-sex partners as "spouses," gays can not sponsor their foreign-born partners.

Nadler's proposed legislation requires bi-national same-sex couples to prove they intend a lifelong commitment to each other as permanent partners, that they are financially interdependent, that they are not currently married to anyone else and that they are unrelated to one another.

The bill would change terminology that would define the couples as "permanent partners" rather than "spouses."