For the Benefit of “Blue”
a Drum Circle and Performance
in support of Manuela “Blue”Arboleda and Family
Saturday, June 23rd , 8-10pm
Hosted by: The Love and Light Center
Suggested Donation: $20. No offering too small.

Manuela “Blue” Arboleda, a friend of the DrumRise family, graduated high school this week! Blue moved to Georgia when she was 12 years old as her mom, Monica began a Masters and PhD program at UGA. A short while later Monica met the love of her life, Lisa and the three have been living as a family since 2007 with Lisa becoming Blue’s second parent through adoption in 2010. Despite being the legal daughter of an American citizen, Blue has not yet been able to achieve citizenship herself. The reasons for this are a complex tangle of immigration and adoption law that leaves hundreds of children of multi-national couples in legal limbo! Blue’s situation is further complicated because the Defense of Marriage Act prevents her family from pursuing the same civil rights afforded to other families under federal law. More on Blue’s story, in Monica and Lisa’s own words is below.

DrumRise’s intention for this DrumRaising event is threefold:

• To raise some funds to assist with the legal costs involved in moving forward with Blue’s attempts to become a legal resident and citizen.
• To raise awareness around the immigration, adoption, and LGBT rights issues impacting Blue’s case.
• To raise the spirits of Blue and her family. Lisa and Monica have been fighting a series of adoption and immigration legal battles for several years. Even if you’re not able to assist financially, please come lend your loving intention and spirit. Let’s drum together to provide Monica and Lisa a little stress relief and send some positive intention out that this family will see a happy resolution to their struggle.

Our Story
(by Blue’s mom, Monica and her partner, Lisa)

This is a fundraising event aimed to facilitate the immigration process of Manuela Arboleda, as well as to bring awareness around immigration and LGBT issues. Manuela was born in Bogota, Colombia (South America) in 1994. In 2006, Monica Arboleda, along with her daughter Manuela, moved to Georgia to complete her Masters and PHD at the University of Georgia. Soon after, Monica met her soul mate and partner Lisa Millisor. Manuela, Monica and Lisa have lived as family since December of 2007.

It seemed like such a simple endeavor when Lisa did a second parent adoption of Manuela in the U.S. in February 2010. This was a very important and significant moment for the three of us because it legally validated our family. Monica is in the U.S. on an F1 visa to study and Manuela’s status is tied to her on an F2 visa. At the time of adoption Monica would have had to end her parental rights to change Manuela’s immigration status, not an option for our family! Manuela could not pursue legal residency status in the U.S. – which is commonly understood as granting a green card and/or U.S. citizenship- despite the fact that Lisa -her other mother- is a U.S. citizen. After a two year waiting period and Manuela’s 18th birthday, Lisa has the option to petition for Manuela’s legal residency in the U.S. In seeking legal assistance to initiate this process, we found ourselves to be “a first case of its type.”

How does one become a “first case?” To answer this question we must list the labels “same-sex binational couple,” adoption under “The Hague Convention” when the child was not present in her country of birth –Colombia- and absence of the “habitual residency letter” from the Colombian government. The habitual residency letter is a document required by the U.S. that declares where the child who is being adopted resides. However, the definition of “residence” is different for adoption law – it refers to the place where the child lives-, immigration law –it refers to citizenship- and other countries. All that aside, no countries are issuing letters of habitual residency to the U.S. under the argument that this is a U.S. Law and is not pertinent to them.

During the first meeting with the lawyer, she explained to us that the adoption would not change Manuela’s immigration status because: 1) immigration law is a federal law, 2) DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is also a federal law, 3) Second parent adoption for same-sex couples are state laws and 4) A state law cannot go over a federal law. In this first meeting, we also knew that Colombia signed the Hague Convention which is an international agreement to safeguard intercountry adoptions and establishes international standards of practices for intercountry adoptions. The U.S. signed the Convention in 1994, and it entered into force for the United States in April 2008. The Hague Adoption Convention applies to all adoptions between the U.S. and the other counties that have joined it. The conditions for these adoptions are similar to a ‘regular’ adoption but it has some other specific conditions. During the past two years, we as a family and especially Manuela have been waiting for this moment with big excitement hoping thatManuela will be able to have the same civil rights that other U.S. kids of her age have: job, drivers license, bank account, opportunities and possibilities regarding financial aid for school besides an increase in her sense of belonging to a country in which she has spent almost half of her life and is part of her identity now

Lisa has begun the process on Manuela’s behalf who hopes of one day becoming a citizen and thus petitioning her mother into the country. Due to economic circumstances and the complexities involved it is difficult to pay the expenses. Please come donate. To date; lawyers have yet been unable to find a case exactly like this which could potentially be a huge step in both immigration, and LGBT equality.

Much Thanks to All!

Lisa and Monica